THE  CASH 
INTRIGUE 


. 


GEORGE 
ANBOLPH 


THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 


OE  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELEg 


"  Tell   me   what  I   should  do,"   said  Elsie 


THE 

CASH  INTRIGUE 

A  Fantastic  Melodrama  of  Modern  Finance 


BY 

GEORGE  RANDOLPH  CHESTER 


Author  of 
THE  MAKING  OF  BOBBY  BURNIT 


WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS  BY 

M.  LEONE  BR ACKER 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT  1909 
THE  BOBBS-MERRII.L  COMPANY 


PRESS  OP 

BRAUNWORTH  <fc  CO. 

BOOKBINDERS  AND  PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN,  N.  Y. 


THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 


2128608 


THE  CASH   INTRIGUE 


CHAPTER  I 

WHEREIN     PHILLIP     KELVIN     VISITS     WALL    STREET 
WITH  UNASSAILABLE  CREDENTIALS 

IT  was  shortly  after  nine  o'clock  when  a  brisk 
young  man  stepped  out  of  a  taxicab  into  the 
dim  crevice  of  Broad  Street,  followed  by  a 
huge  negro  bearing  a  suit-case.  The  young  man 
was  evidently  a  complete  stranger  in  the  locality, 
for  he  looked  about  him  with  frank  curiosity,  paus 
ing  for  a  moment  to  wonder  at  the  daily  farce  of 
the  curb-market  before  turning  in  at  the  doorway 
of  a  narrow  stair.  Nestled  back  amid  a  number 
of  alleged  brokers,  who  dealt  hilariously  in  such 
"  securities "  as  Wireless  Motor  Preferred,  he 
found  the  offices  of  Henry  Galleon  and  Company, 
one  of  the  few  legitimate  firms  which,  entrenched  in 
their  own  natural  conservativeness,  had  refused 
to  move  when  the  curb  invasion  came.  Passing 
through  the  outer  office,  where  a  gray-haired  "  boy  " 

I 


2  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

would  soon  begin  to  post  ticker  quotations  on  a 
small  blackboard  for  the  benefit  of  a  scant  score  of 
antiquated  and  empty  arm-chairs,  he  entered  the  ad 
joining  room,  where,  behind  corroded  iron  grilles, 
a  row  of  elderly  clerks  worked  quietly  over  ponder 
ous  books.  At  the  end  of  the  narrow  lane  in  front 
of  these  desks  was  a  small  door  marked  simply  "  Of 
fices,"  beyond  which  door  a  wizened  man,  bent  with 
years  but  still  active,  looked  up  from  a  battered 
and  scratched  walnut  desk  as  ancient  as  he,  waiting 
silently  for  the  square-jawed  visitor  to  introduce 
himself. 

"  Mr.  Galleon?  "  inquired  the  new-comer. 

"  Upon  what  business,  please  ?  "  asked  the  other 
mechanically. 

"  I  only  care  to  talk  with  Mr.  Galleon  himself." 
Very  pleasant  about  it  indeed,  but  the  chin,  though 
it  had  a  dimple  in  it,  stuck  out  most  aggressively. 

The  old  man  arose  with  a  slight,  protesting  frown, 
asked  for  a  card,  and  took  it  into  an  inner  room. 

Henry  Galleon  was  about  the  same  age  as  his 
secretary,  but  he  was  erect.  His  face  and  his  bald 
head  were  pink  with  a  baby's  pinkness,  his  white 
hair  glistened  like  silk,  and  the  brightness  of  his 
eyes  was  almost  infantile.  He  looked  up  from  the 
card  inquiringly. 

"Phillip  Kelvin?"  he  said.  ".Who's  Phillip 
Kelvin?  I  never  heard  of  him." 


PHILLIP  VISITS  WALL  STREET        3 

"  I  don't  know,"  replied  the  secretary.  "  He's 
a  very  capable-looking  young  man,  and  by  no  means 
a  New-Yorker,  I  should  think.  He  has  a  tremen 
dously  large  negro  with  him;  the  largest  one  I  ever 
saw.  The  negro  is  carrying  a  big  suit-case." 

Henry  Galleon  pondered  that  matter  quietly, 
smoothing  his  chin  with  the  thumb  and  fingers  of 
one  hand,  after  the  unbreakable  habit  of  a  man 
who  has  once  worn  a  beard.  Fanatics  with  bombs 
had  menaced  the  Wall  Street  district  of  late,  and 
they  might  come  in  any  guise. 

"  Find  out  his  business,  Messmer,"  was  the  sane 
conclusion. 

"  I  did  ask,  but  he  insisted  on  seeing  you 
personally." 

Galleon  frowned.  "If  he  can't  explain  properly 
to  you,  let  him  go.  You  are  authorized  to  transact 
all  necessary  business  in  my  name." 

Messmer  went  out  with  that  message,  though  he 
softened  it  somewhat.  Young  Kelvin  had  evidently 
expected  such  an  answer,  for  he  smiled  and  turned 
to  the  negro. 

"  Here,  Sam,"  he  directed,  "  put  the  case  on  this 
desk." 

The  staid  and  evenly  balanced  Messmer  frowned 
as  the  suit-case  was  slammed  upon  the  top  of  his 
tangle  of  papers,  but  he  waited  with  some  curiosity 
while  young  Kelvin  unlocked  it.  Messmer  had  half 


4  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

expected  to  see  a  set  of  books  or  a  sample  of  some 
new  office  contrivance,  but  when  the  lid  was  thrown 
back  he  was  struck  dumb  by  the  surprising  con 
tents  of  that  unpretentious  bit  of  luggage. 

*  These,"  said  young  Kelvin  smilingly,  running 
his  hand  down  in  the  suit-case  and  fluttering 
the  edges  of  its  contents,  "  these  are  my  letters 
of  introduction.  Kindly  tell  Mr.  Galleon  about 
them,  and  that  I  will  not  talk  to  any  one  but  him 
self." 

"  Yes,  sir !  "  said  Messmer  with  surprising  alac 
rity.  "Yes,  sir;  yes,  sir!" 

He  was  positively  white  and  trembling  when  he 
went  back  into  Galleon's  office.  He  was  rubbing 
his  hands  together  nervously,  and  his  tottering  foot 
steps  had  become  a  double-quick  shuffle. 

"  That  suit-case !  "  he  gasped.  "  The  young  man 
has  just  opened  it,  and  it  is  full  to  the  top  with 
nothing  but  money!" 

"  Money  ?  "  expostulated  Mr.   Galleon. 

"Money,  sir,  money!"  repeated  Messmer; 
"  paper  money,  all  of  high  denomination.  Solid 
packages  of  bills!  He  said  that  these  were  his  let 
ters  of  reference,  and  that  he  would  talk  business 
with  no  one  but  you." 

Mr.  Galleon  turned  upon  old  Messmer  per 
emptorily.  "  Why  don't  you  show  the  young 
gentleman  in?"  he  demanded. 


PHILLIP  VISITS  WALL  STREET        5 

He  inspected  young  Kelvin  sharply  as  Phillip 
came  into  the  room,  and  found  him  to  be  a  well- 
dressed,  clean-looking  chap,  with  an  extremely  clear 
eye  and  an  extremely  healthy  complexion,  his  fair 
ness  and  his  lithe  slenderness  being  made  all  the 
more  striking  by  contrast  with  the  gigantic  Sam, 
a  perfect  Hercules,  whose  almost  jet-black  face 
was  scarred  with  a  deep  cut  upon  his  left  cheek, 
and  the  lobe  of  whose  right  ear  had  been  neatly 
sliced  away. 

"  Your  letters  of  recommendation  are  perfectly 
satisfactory,  Mr.  Kelvin,"  said  the  broker  smiling, 
as  he  glanced  down  at  the  card  again  to  make  sure 
of  the  name.  "  What  can  we  do  for  you  ?  " 

For  answer  young  Kelvin  opened  the  suit-case 
and  took  from  it  eight  packages  of  bills,  which  he 
counted  over  carefully.  "  Here  are  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars,"  said  he.  "  I  wish  you  to  sell 
for  me  one  thousand  shares  each  of  these  four 
stocks."  He  laid  a  slip  of  paper  upon  Mr.  Gal 
leon's  desk.  The  broker  did  not  look  at  the  mem 
orandum  at  once;  he  looked  first  at  the  packages 
of  bills,  and  then  at  the  suit-case.  He  made  a 
hasty  calculation,  and  then  hesitated.  If  those  eight 
packages  contained  two  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
and  the  rest  of  the  packages  were  composed  of  bills 
of  similar  denomination,  that  suit-case  must  con 
tain  not  less  than  two  million  dollars,  cash ! 


6  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Of  course,  Mr.  Kelvin,  it  is  none  of  my  af 
fair,"  he  began  hesitantly,  "  but  it  is  positively  crim 
inal  of  you  to  be  carrying  that  enormous  amount 
of  currency  about  with  you.  It  ought  to  be  banked. 
You  must  consider,"  and  he  smiled  again,  "  that  I 
would  just  as  soon  have  your  check  as  this  money; 
in  fact,  much  rather." 

"  It  is  one  of  the  strict  conditions  of  my  dealing 
with  you  that  our  operations  are  to  be  transacted 
in  currency.  I  shall  neither  give  nor  receive 
checks." 

"  But  it  is  dangerous,"  insisted  Mr.  Galleon. 

Phillip  smiled.  "  Ordinarily,  yes,"  he  admitted, 
"  but  in  the  present  juncture  I  consider  banks  much 
more  dangerous.  Have  you  a  good  deposit  vault  ?  " 

"  I  have  deposit  boxes  in  the  best  vaults  in  town." 
This  a  little  stiffly. 

"  Then  I  must  insist  that  you  keep  this  cash  under 
your  own  lock  and  key.  Use  no  more  than  twenty 
dollars  per  share  for  initial  margins,  and  hold  the 
balance  in  reserve." 

Galleon  frowned  and  shook  his  head.  "  It  is  an 
absurd  thing  to  do,  especially  now,"  he  protested. 
"  There  prevails,  at  present,  a  peculiar  condition 
which  you  may  not  understand,  Mr.  Kelvin ;  it  even 
puzzles  old  members  of  the  Street.  While  the  mar 
ket  is  sluggish,  money  is  very  tight,  a  most  rare 
and  unusual  state  of  affairs.  It  would  be  folly  to 


PHILLIP  VISITS  WALL  STREET       7 

let  this  amount  of  cash  lie  idle  when  it  could  com 
mand  such  an  unusual  rate." 

"  Do  you  wish  to  handle  my  deals  or  not?  "  and 
young  Kelvin's  jaws  came  shut  with  a  snap. 

Galleon  studied  the  matter  over  in  silence  for  a 
while.  "  How  does  it  happen  that  you  come  to 
me?"  he  asked. 

"  That  is  very  simple,"  replied  Kelvin  with  a 
smile.  "  From  perfectly  authentic  sources  I  se 
cured  a  list  of  all  the  Board  of  Trade  members  in 
New  York  who  do  absolutely  no  bucketing  and  no 
trading  upon  their  own  account;  and  you  happened 
to  head  that  list." 

Henry  Galleon  bent  forward  eagerly.  "How, 
many  are  there  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Less  than  would  have  saved  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah.  There  are  just  five,  and  I  was  given 
a  doubt  concerning  one  of  those." 

Chuckling  to  himself,  Henry  Galleon  began 
counting  the  money.  He  touched  a  button  and 
there  stepped  energetically  into  the  room,  from  a 
rear  door,  a  young  fellow  of  broad  shoulders  and 
bronzed  face,  who  was  the  personification  of  cheer 
ful  good-humor.  There  was  a  certain  careless  ease 
in  the  very  flow  of  his  cravat  which  told  of  a  happy- 
go-lucky  disposition,  and  superabundant  health  was 
visible  in  every  line  of  his  figure. 

Galleon  pushed  forward  the  slip  of  paper  which 


8  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Kelvin  had  just  given  him.  "  Selling  orders  for 
the  first  thing  this  morning,  at  the  market,"  he 
explained. 

The  young  man  paid  no  attention  to  the  slip. 
"  Why,  hello,  Phill ! "  he  exclaimed,  and  rushing 
across  to  young  Kelvin,  he  grasped  that  gentleman 
by  the  right  hand  and  pounded  him  vigorously  upon 
the  shoulder  with  his  left.  "  It's  been  an  age  since 
I  saw  you,  old  boy ! "  he  roared  with  delight. 
"  Where  did  you  drop  in  from  ?  " 

"  Tennessee,"  replied  Kelvin.  "  By  George, 
you're  looking  well,  Rensselaer.  I'm  as  much  sur 
prised  to  see  you  here,  so  far  away  from  the 
mavericks  and  the  rustlers,  as  you  are  to  see  me." 

"  Oh,  I'm  not  in  such  a  different  occupation  from 
cow-punching,"  laughed  Rensselaer.  "  I'm  Mr. 
Galleon's  floor-member  over  on  the  Exchange,  and 
it's  much  the  same  sort  of  exercise.  Where  are  you 
stopping?  " 

"  At  the  Esplanade.  What  time  do  you  get 
through  work?" 

"  A  little  after  three." 

"  Come  up  to  see  me,"  invited  Kelvin.  "  I'll  be 
in  all  day." 

"  I  sure  will !  "  declared  Rensselaer.  "  Then 
we'll  go  out  and  see  if  we  can't  get  some  canned 
tomatoes.  Do  you  remember  how  we  used  to  go 
down  to  Abe  Turner's  store  at  Greaser  Gulch  and 


PHILLIP  VISITS  WALL  STREET        9 

buy  canned  fruit  and  spear  it  out  with  a  jack- 
knife?" 

"  I  don't  think  I  shall  ever  forget  it,"  laughed 
Kelvin.  "  I  never  want  to.  However,  I  think  we 
can  find  something  better  than  jerked  beef  at  the 
Esplanade.  I'll  wait  for  you  with  a  great  deal  of 
pleasure." 

As  soon  as  he  had  gone,  Galleon  turned  eagerly 
to  young  Rensselaer.  ".Who  was  that?"  he  de 
manded. 

"  Phill  Kelvin.  I  used  to  know  him  on  a  Mon 
tana  ranch  when  we  were  cow-punching  together, 
five  or  six  years  ago." 

"Was  he  there  for  his  health?"  asked  Galleon. 

"  I  don't  think  so,"  replied  Rensselaer  with  a 
chuckle.  "  As  I  remember  him  he  had  too  much 
health,  if  anything;  but  that  was  about  all  he  pos 
sessed.  I  bunked  with  him  for  six  months,  and 
there  never  was  a  finer  fellow  on  earth  —  so  long 
as  he  had  his  own  way." 

"  He  looks  like  that,"  said  Galleon,  smiling. 

"  Only  more  so,"  returned  Rensselaer.  "  Out 
there  he  was  bull-headed  about  everything  he 
started  after  —  little  things  or  big  ones.  If  he  once 
set  his  head  to  get  something  or  to  do  something, 
even  the  boss  side-tracked." 

"  Huh!  "  grunted  Galleon.  "  Where  did  he  get 
his  money  ?  "  ; 


io  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  I  didn't  know  he  had  any,"  returned  Rensselaer 
in  surprise. 

"  Look  here." 

Rensselaer  stepped  around  to  where  he  could  see 
inside  of  his  employer's  desk,  and  Galleon,  with  his 
thumb,  fluttered  the  edges  of  the  packages  of  money 
that  lay  there. 

"He  just  left  this  here;  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  to  margin  those  four  thousand  shares  of 
stock  fifty  points.  Did  you  see  that  suit-case  he 
had?  Stuffed  full  of  greenbacks!  There  couldn't 
have  been  less  than  two  million  dollars  in  it ! " 

Rensselaer  whistled,  and  they  were  both  silent  for 
a  little  while. 

"  .Well,"  Rensselaer  finally  observed,  "  however 
he  got  it,  he  didn't  steal  it.  More  power  to  him. 
I  hope  he  digs  up  two  million  more."  He  paused 
a  moment  and  then  chuckled.  "  Kelvin  used  to 
have  some  queer  ideas,"  he  went  on.  "  He  used  to 
tell  me  about  them,  lying  awake  at  night  in  camp, 
or  when  we  were  loafing  around  down  in  the  val 
leys  where  the  long  grass  grows.  I  could  never 
make  out  just  whether  he  really  meant  it,  or  if  he 
was  doing  a  lot  of  dry  kidding.  He  could  do  that, 
you  know,  without  ever  cracking  a  smile.  My  am 
bition,  at  that  time,  was  to  become  a  great  general, 
but  his  loco  point  was  that  a  republican  form  of 
government  was  bound  to  fail.  Said  he  was  crazy 


PHILLIP  VISITS  WALL  STREET      n 

for  power,  and  that  the  way  to  get  it  was  to  secure 
control  of  all  the  money  in  the  United  States. 
With  that  he  could  do  anything  —  overthrow  the 
government,  make  himself  emperor,  correct  all  the 
abuses  in  the  world.  He  promised  me  my  general 
ship,  when  the  time  came.  Funny  jumble  of  stuff, 
but  sometimes  it  sounded  reasonable,  too." 

Old  Henry  Galleon  whistled  softly  to  himself,  a 
homely  tune  of  long  ago,  and  tapped  the  pile  of 
money  with  his  lead-pencil.  "  He's  got  hold  of  so 
much  of  the  money  he  was  after  that  he'll  forget 
the  rest  of  the  program,"  he  sagely  observed. 


CHAPTER  II 

TWO   LADIES   ADDRESS    NOTES    TO    THE   YOUNG    MAN 
OF    READY   CASH 

FOUR  other  brokerage  firms  young  Kelvin 
visited,  and  with  each  one  he  concluded  an 
arrangement  precisely  like  that  entered  into 
with  Galleon,  except  that  at  each  office  he  left  a 
different  list  of  stocks  to  be  sold  on  a  twenty  point 
margin,  backed  up  by  fifty  dollars  cash  per  share; 
then,  with  Sam's  suit-case  half  empty,  he  directed 
his  chauffeur  to  drive  back  up  Broadway  to  the 
Esplanade.  Upon  that  marvelous  thoroughfare  he 
looked  about  him  with  the  frank  curiosity  which 
marks  the  wondering  stranger.  He  was  a  part  of 
a  swiftly  moving  triple  procession  on  the  right- 
hand  side  of  the  street,  a  conglomeration  of  trolley- 
cars  and  power-driven  vehicles  of  every  description; 
and  upon  the  opposite  side  a  similar  procession 
flashed  by  him  in  endless  array,  each  car  at  the 
service  of  a  restless,  dominating  human  force. 
These  were  the  kings  of  the  world,  these  men  in 
auto-conveyances,  each  king  struggling,  with  all  his 
vital  power,  to  conquer  other  kingdoms.  It  was 

12 


TWO  LADIES  ADDRESS  NOTES       13 

wonderful,  this  mighty  spectacle  of  realized  and 
realizing  ambition,  and  Phillip  drank  in  the  spirit 
of  it  with  an  exhilaration  that  was  almost  an 
intoxication. 

"  Only  fifteen  years,  Sam,"  he  said,  turning  to 
the  negro,  "  and  see  what  has  been  done.  This  is 
the  most  wonderful  city  in  the  world." 

"  Yes,  sah,"  replied  Sam,  looking  briefly  from  the 
suit-case  between  his  feet,  and  immediately  concen 
trating  his  gaze  upon  it  again. 

Kelvin  laughed.  "  Nothing  so  wonderful  to  you 
as  that  suit-case,  is  there,  Sam? " 

"  No,  sah,"  agreed  Sam,  permitting  himself  a 
slight  grin,  which,  however,  was  so  fleeting  that  it 
scarcely  detracted  from  the  serious  preoccupation 
of  his  face.  "  Ah  done  reckon  tha's  about  all  the 
money  in  the  worl' !  " 

"  Not  quite,"  dissented  Kelvin  with  a  smile,  then 
turned  again  to  study  the  changes  time  had  wrought. 
"  It  is  marvelous,"  he  presently  resumed,  talking 
more  to  himself  than  to  the  negro.  "  When  I  was 
here  fifteen  years  ago  I  could  not  appreciate  what 
all  this  meant,  but  now  I  know  that  this  street  is  the 
concentrated  nervous  energy  of  America  gone  mad 
in  the  race  for  supremacy.  I  guess  you  didn't 
think  you'd  see  anything  like  this,  Sam,  when  I 
saved  you  from  the  mob  in  the  Tennessee  woods?  " 

Sam    shuddered.     "'Deed   Ah   didn't,"   he   ad- 


I4  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

mitted.  "  Mistah  Phillip,  Ah'll  neveh  fohget  that 
as  long  as  Ah  live.  Mah  life  was  plum'  gone,  boss. 
Ah  suah  would  been  han'led  like  they  done  the  right 
man  when  they-all  got  'im,  ef  yo'  hadn't  come  along 
in  yo'  automobile.  Mah  life  belongs  to  yo',  boss. 
Yo'  kin  —  yo'  kin  kill  me  —  jes'  any  time  yo'  git 
good  an'  ready,  'cause  Ah  done  live  now  three 
yeahs  longeh  than  mah  time,'1 

"  They've  been  fairly  happy  years  for  both  of  us, 
Sam,"  said  Phillip ;  "  but  now  we  really  begin  to 
live."  He  mused  a  while  longer,  then,  going  back 
to  his  original  thought,  added  with  a  curious  smile : 
"  It  is  strange  to  me  that,  with  all  these  advance 
ments  in  science,  business  and  politics  have  not  ad 
vanced  one  whit,  except  along  the  line  of  their 
logical  ends.  The  same  antiquated  methods  are 
used  that  were  in  vogue  fifty  years  ago.  I  guess 
that,  after  all,  those  are  the  two  most  conservative 
institutions  in  the  world.  Eh,  Sam  ? " 

"  Yes,  sah,"  Sam  again  readily  agreed,  where 
upon  Phillip  laughed  heartily. 

Arrived  at  Phillip's  apartments  in  the  Esplanade, 
Sam  hurried  into  an  inner  room.  Methodically  he 
took  cushions  from  the  couch  and  pillows  from  the 
bed,  and  piled  them  in  a  corner;  then  he  sat  down 
against  them  with  the  suit-case  between  his  knees, 
and  within  five  minutes,  in  loose-limbed  ease  and 


TWO  LADIES  ADDRESS  NOTES      15 

with  an  unblinking  stare,  had  lapsed  into  a  semi- 
trance-like  condition,  which  he  could  maintain  for 
hours.  He  reminded  one  of  nothing  so  much  as  a 
huge  brown  bulldog  on  guard,  and  it  would  have 
gone  ill  with  any  living  creature  that  had  tried  to 
touch  that  suit-case. 

Meanwhile,  Phillip,  in  the  apartment  which  had 
been  turned  into  an  office  for  him,  entered  his  record 
of  the  day's  business  on  filing-cards  and  upon  a 
huge  diagram  sheet,  then  wrote  a  long  and  careful 
letter,  after  which  he  took  pencil  and  paper  from 
a  drawer  in  his  desk  and  delved  into  numerous 
books  of  statistics. 

It  was  nearing  three  o'clock  when  a  boy  brought 
in  two  letters.  One  of  them,  in  a  heavy,  cream- 
tinted  envelope  and  slightly  fragrant,  he  opened  and 
read  through  with  a  frown.  A  postscript  at  the  end, 
however,  brought  a  smile  to  his  face,  and  he  stepped 
into  the  a'd joining  apartment.  Sam's  eyes  were 
closed,  but  Phillip  had  no  sooner  set  foot  in  the 
room  than  he  opened  them,  black  and  shining  and 
as  expressionless  as  the  eyes  of  a  huge  turtle. 
Without  moving,  he  waited  for  Phillip  to  address 
him. 

"  Lucy  hasn't  forgotten  you,  Sam,"  said  Phillip. 

Sam's  eyes  glistened,  and  a  grin  pushed  the  scar 
out  of  the  way  to  make  room  for  itself. 


16  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  She  suttenly  is  the  most  mischievousest  pusson 
Ah  eveh  saw  in  mah  life,"  he  exploded,  and  he 
ended  with  a  shrill  falsetto  chuckle. 

"  Her  mistress  writes,"  went  on  Phillip,  glancing 
at  the  letter  again :  "  '  Lucy  is  turning  pale  since 
your  visit  to  Forest  Lakes,  and  I  think  she  is  pining 
away  for  Sam.  She  asked  yesterday  when  he  was 
coming  back.  When  is  he  ?  ' 

Sam  bent  over  the  suit-case,  and  slapped  his  legs 
in  a  paroxysm  of  delight.  "  Ah  suttenly  is  a  lady- 
killeh,"  said  he. 

Phillip,  laughing,  returned  to  his  office,  and  tear 
ing  the  letter  once  across,  dropped  it  into  the  waste- 
basket  with  a  gesture  of  almost  contempt,  then  he 
opened  the  second  letter,  one  addressed  in  a  girl's 
hand,  but  a  firm  one.  This  too  he  read  with  a 
frown,  but  it  was  one  of  surprise,  and  going  to  the 
window,  he  looked  out  upon  the  cheerless  prospect 
of  endless  roofs  and  tall,  angular  buildings  with  an 
eye  which  saw  far  beyond  these  artificial  canyons. 
Seen  thus  and  in  repose,  his  face  was  a  striking 
one,  striking  because  of  the  sternness  that  sat  upon 
every  feature;  but  that  this  sternness,  and  the 
habitual  squaring  of  his  shoulders  and  tilting  of 
his  chin,  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  second  letter 
was  presently  evidenced  when,  recalling  his  wan 
dering  thoughts,  he  smiled  as  he  glanced  down  at 
it.  A  ring  of  the  telephone  interrupted  his  musing. 


TWO  LADIES  ADDRESS  NOTES       17 

"  Mr.  Rensselaer  ?  "  he  repeated  into  the  tele 
phone.  "  Send  him  right  up." 

He  turned  to  his  desk  and  tossed  upon  it  the 
letter  he  had  been  reading,  then  quickly  sorted  his 
index  cards  and  arranged  them  in  their  case.  There 
came  a  knock  at  the  door,  and  he  opened  it  to  let 
young  Rensselaer  in. 

"  You're  just  in  time,  Bert,"  he  declared. 
"What  have  you  to  do  this  evening?" 

"  Anything  or  nothing,''  replied  Rensselaer.  "  At 
three  o'clock  all  I  want  to  do  is  to  get  as  far  away 
from  the  mutton  abattoir  as  possible,  and  forget  all 
about  it  until  the  next  morning." 

'  You're  a  queer  specimen  to  be  engaged  in  that 
branch  of  physical  culture,"  commented  Phillip,  as 
his  eyes  swept  over  young  Rensselaer's  stocky  build. 

"  That's  the  only  reason  I'm  there,"  Rensselaer 
declared  with  a  grin.  "  It's  the  nearest  thing  to 
bronco-busting  that  I  can  find,"  and  he  laughed  out 
of  the  sheer  joy  of  living.  "  But  what  reckless  dis 
sipation  have  you  in  mind  ?  " 

"  I  have  some  friends  over  in  New  Jersey  that 
I  am  more  or  less  obliged  to  see,"  replied  Phillip, 
"  and  I  thought  you  might  sacrifice  yourself  enough 
to  run  over  with  me.  I  understand  it's  only  an 
hour  and  a  half  if  you  take  the  tunnel." 

Rensselaer  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  Oh,  well, 
if  you  insist  upon  the  tube  I  guess  I  can  stand  it 


i8  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

as  well  as  you.  It  can't  be  denied  that  it  saves  a 
lot  of  time." 

"  I  don't  think  that's  the  whole  reason,"  con 
fessed  Phillip,  putting  on  his  hat  and  top-coat. 
"  Frankly,  I  want  to  get  into  the  subway ;  to  smell 
the  subway  smell,  and  renew,  if  I  can,  the  impres 
sions  of  novelty  that  I  enjoyed  in  my  boyhood. 
You  see,  I  was  only  a  kid  the  last  time  I  was  here." 

"  It  must  have  seemed  a  wonderful  place  to  you 
then,"  said  Rensselaer.  "  For  myself  I'd  rather  be 
a  cow-puncher  than  anything  I  can  think  of,  but 
my  respected  auntie  can't  conceive  of  one's  living 
anywhere  else  than  in  or  near  Manhattan,  and 
moreover  she  fears  I  might  contract  a  mesalliance 
out  west,  as  she  still  declares  my  father  did." 

"That  was  his  one  best  trick,  wasn't  it?"  in 
quired  Phillip. 

"  No  doubt  of  it,"  returned  the  other.  "  I'm  the 
first  Rensselaer  in  a  hundred  years  who  has  been 
able  to  bathe  without  the  aid  of  a  valet,  and  the 
first  one  to  have  blood  enough  to  gush  when  he 
was  cut;  and  my  mother  —  well,  she  was  a  real 
woman;  gentle,  but  brave,  too;  sweetly  feminine, 
but  strong  and  healthy;  tactful,  but  sincere  and  hon 
est."  His  voice  quavered,  and  he  stopped. 

"  I  wish  I  might  have  known  her,"  said  Kelvin. 
"That  is  a  good  country  to  produce  real  human 


TWO  LADIES  ADDRESS  NOTES       19 

beings.  I  think  I  gained  health  and  energy  enough 
out  there  to  last  me  through  all  my  coming 
campaign." 

Rensselaer  turned  to  him  quickly.  "Of  course 
I'm  not  going  to  ask  you  what  your  plans  are,  nor 
how  you  reached  your  present  point,"  he  observed, 
"  but  you're  doing  a  stunning  thing,  if  it's  your 
aim  to  gain  profitable  conspicuousness.  There 
hasn't  been  so  much  real  money  in  the  financial  dis 
trict  in  years.  Big  checks  are  not  uncommon,  but 
big  wads  of  cold  cash  are  a  rarity.  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  making  your  trades  this  morning,  and 
within  an  hour  afterward  they  were  all  talking 
about  it.  You  certainly  must  have  put  in  a  remark 
able  five  years.  Where  did  you  go  from  Mon 
tana?" 

"  Oh,  down  to  Tennessee  in  the  real-estate  busi 
ness,"  said  Phillip  guardedly.  "  There  are  large 
natural  resources  in  that  state  which  are  just  being 
developed,  and  I  managed  to  get  in  pretty  good  on 
them.  I  did  a  stroke  or  two  down  there  that 
brought  me  some  success  and  some  influential 
friends.  Now  I  am  going  to  make  a  big  play.  You 
know,"  and  though  he  spoke  lightly  he  frowned 
darkly,  "  a  certain  Wall  Street  crowd,  still  in  busi 
ness,  broke  my  father,  and  he  died  from  it." 

"  I  remember  of  your  telling  me  something  about 


20  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

that.  But  be  careful  you  don't  overplay  your 
game,"  warned  Rensselaer,  whereat  Kelvin  only 
smiled,  though  grimly  enough. 

They  had  reached  the  bottom  of  the  hotel  elevator 
shaft  now,  and  they  turned  into  the  subway  cor 
ridor,  a  convenience  which  impressed  Kelvin  very 
much. 

"  It's  a  bad  development,"  stated  Rensselaer, 
shaking  his  head.  "  There  is  a  growing  tendency 
toward  these  direct  entrances,  both  in  business  and 
in  tenement  districts,  and  it  is  bound  to  produce  a 
race  of  toilers  who  will  see  no  sunlight  whatever. 
They  will  practically  be  human  moles,  like  that  er 
rand-boy  yonder, —  undersized  and  undeveloped, 
physically,  mentally,  and  morally;  white  and  soft 
and  flabby,  like  putty.  They  will  not  be  men,  they 
will  be  worms." 

Phillip  looked  at  the  boy,  a  youth  of  about  seven 
teen  years  and  not  much  larger  than  he  should  have 
been  at  twelve,  with  a  feeling  of  revulsion.  "  Some 
time  the  worm  may  turn,"  he  speculated;  "and  if 
it  does,  watch  out!  When  a  country  loses  its  mid 
dle  class  it  is  in  a  bad  way.  You  can  crush  out 
of  mankind  everything,  even  hope,  with  one 
exception." 

"And  that  is?" 

"  The  capacity  to  kill." 

Rensselaer    laughed.     "  Can    you    imagine    any- 


thing  more  amusing  or  entertaining  than  a  fight 
with  about  fifty  of  those  chaps?  " 

"  I  don't  see  the  fun  in  it,"  objected  Phillip. 
"  Assume  yourself,  however,  merely  for  the  sake  of 
illustration,  to  be  able  to  cope  with  fifty  of 
them;  when  another  and  another  and  still  another 
fifty  came  it  might  grow  a  trifle  wearisome.  I  saw 
a  crowd  of  newsboys  in  Chicago  attack  a  very 
brawny  man  once,  and  they  nearly  killed  him." 

"  I've  known  cow-men  to  fight  over  a  milder  dis 
cussion  than  this,"  laughed  Rensselaer.  "  I  guess 
we'd  better  drop  it.  Do  you  remember  that  fa 
mous  fight  between  Mutton  Harris  and  Freckles 
Lane,  over  the  proper  way  to  flop  a  pancake?  " 

That  started  a  line  of  reminiscences  which  lasted 
until  tunnel  and  suburban  train  had  brought  them 
to  Hampton,  where  Kelvin  consulted  the  letter  he 
had  carried  in  his  pocket,  and  they  searched  out 
the  home  of  Ben  White. 


CHAPTER  III 

YOUNG    RENSSELAER   DISCOVERS    ELSIE   WHITE'S 
SECRET,  BUT  NOT  PHILLIP'S 

THE  Whites  were  strictly  an  instalment 
family.  They  lived  in  an  instalment 
house,  wore  instalment  clothing,  sat  upon 
instalment  furniture,  and  read  instalment  books. 
As  Kelvin  and  Rensselaer  turned  in  at  the  gate  a 
scowling  collector  was  turning  away  from  the  door, 
in  which  stood  a  plump,  rosy  and  altogether 
wholesome-looking  young  woman.  Seeing  the  new 
comers,  she  waited,  a  trifle  apprehensively  Kel 
vin  thought,  but  as  they  approached  she  recognized 
Phillip  and  hurried  out  to  meet  him. 

"  I  knew  you'd  come !  "  she  said  with  an  unmis 
takable  ring  of  delight  in  her  voice. 

"  Quite  naturally,"  Phillip  assured  her  as  he 
shook  hands  with  her.  "  Allow  me  to  introduce 
Mr.  Rensselaer,  Miss  White." 

She  shook  hands  with  Rensselaer,  a  firm  clasp 
which,  though  it  was  mere  cordiality,  left  that  im 
pressionable  young  gentleman  tingling.  She  bade 

22 


ELSIE  WHITE'S  SECRET  23 

him  welcome  with  the  same  unaffected  heartiness, 
and  then  turned  immediately  to  Phillip. 

"  How  lucky  I  am ! "  she  said  eagerly  as  they 
walked  up  the  steps.  "  When  I  read  your  name  in 
the  Sunday  list  of  hotel  arrivals  I  just  felt  sure 
that  it  must  be  our  Phillip  Kelvin,  and  I  told  father 
that  I  was  bound  to  write  to  you  and  invite  you 
to  come  out," 

"  I  wondered  how  you  found  me  so  readily,"  He 
commented,  smiling. 

"  It's  because  I'm  so  lonesome,"  she  replied. 
"  We  don't  make  friends  here  like  we  did  in  Ten 
nessee.  I  don't  know  why  people  seem  so  distant, 
unless  they  are  all  so  busy  that  they  don't  seem  to 
have  time  to  become  friends;  so  I  am  for  ever  and 
ever  reading  the  hotel  arrivals,  hoping  that  among 
the  names  I'll  find  somebody  we  used  to  know." 
She  paused  a  moment  and  laughed  at  herself. 
"  But  I  never  found  one  until  now,"  she  admitted, 
"  because  they  don't  publish  the  arrivals  at  the  cheap 
hotels,  and  we  never  knew  anybody  who  was  likely 
to  be  able  to  stop  at  the  more  expensive  ones.  That 
is  how  I  came  to  be  sure  it  was  you." 

"I  don't  see  why,"  objected  Phillip.  "When 
you  knew  me  I  was  as  poor  as  a  church-mouse." 

"  I  know ;  but  that  was  five  years  ago,  and  I  felt 
sure  that  in  five  years  you  ought  to  be  stopping  at 


24  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

the  Esplanade,  or  you  wouldn't  be  the  Phillip  I 
knew." 

"  That's  a  very  pretty  compliment,  Phillip,"  said 
Rensselaer. 

"  This  young  lady  couldn't  say  any  other  sort  of 
thing  about  me  if  she  is  like  she  used  to  be,"  re 
plied  Phillip,  placing  his  hand  affectionately  upon 
her  shoulder.  Rensselaer  thought  she  colored 
slightly  under  the  touch.  "  She  wras  one  of  my 
stanchest  adherents  in  those  days,  long  before  she 
was  a  young  lady.  How  old  were  you  when  I  left, 
Elsie?" 

"  Fifteen,"  she  replied. 

"  Five  years  ago,"  mused  Phillip;  "  now  you  are 
twenty." 

"  And  you're  thirty-three,"  she  returned.  "  My, 
how  old  we're  becoming!  " 

She  led  them  into  the  little  parlor,  which  opened 
directly  from  the  stoop.  Its  floor  was  spread  with 
a  cheap  rug,  there  were  cheap  pictures  upon  the 
walls,  and  the  room  was  fitted  with  furniture  of 
fairly  good  lines,  though  oppressed  with  the  riot  of 
inferior  carving  inseparable  from  cheap  cabinet 
\vork.  In  one  corner  was  a  music-rack  filled  with 
music,  and  though  that  corner  was  filled  with  a 
big  chair,  it  seemed  conspicuously  bare.  To  Phil 
lip,  who  knew  the  Whites  so  well,  that  space  told  its 


ELSIE  WHITE'S  SECRET  25 

own  story.  The  payments  on  the  instalment  piano 
had  not  been  kept  up! 

Elsie  saw  him  looking  toward  the  bereft  corner 
and  understood  at  once  how  much  he  knew.  She 
reddened  under  it,  and,  partly  to  hide  her  confusion, 
went  to  the  door  and  called  back  across  the  dining- 
room  to  the  kitchen, 

"  Mr.  Kelvin  is  here,  mother." 

A  very  much  faded-looking  woman  of  forty- 
two  or  three  came  in,  drying  the  backs  of  her 
hands  with  her  palms.  Her  shoulders  were  stooped, 
her  face  was  wrinkled  and  flabby,  her  hair  was 
untidy,  and  about  every  line  of  her  face  there  was 
an  attitude  of  whining  dejection.  Nevertheless  she 
was  unaffectedly  pleased  to  find  Kelvin  there. 

"  I'm  mighty  glad  to  see  you,"  she  said,  shaking 
hands  with  him,  and  her  tired  eyes  grew  a  trifle 
brighter.  "  My,  how  solid  looking  you've  grown ! 
Seems  to  me  you  look  as  if  you  was  hunting  for 
somebody  to  contrary  you.  You  didn't  use  to  look 
that  way  when  you  boarded  with  us,  did  he,  Elsie  ?  " 

The  girl  studied  him  contemplatively,  but  she 
found  no  flaw  in  him,  as  Rensselaer,  looking  at 
her,  saw.  He  turned  curiously,  seeking  Kelvin's 
expression.  Kelvin  turned  to  Elsie,  and  in  his  gaze 
Rensselaer  thought  that  he  read  friendly  admira 
tion  and  nothing  more.  His  look  had  not  that  rapt 


26  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

eagerness  of  her  gaze,  and  never  would  have  for 
any  woman,  Rensselaer  found  himself  deciding.  He 
decided  wrongly.  Kelvin  had  found  himself 
strongly  drawn  to  Elsie,  but  he  sternly  suppressed 
that  tendency  as  quickly  as  he  recognized  it  in 
himself. 

"  I  don't  know,"  replied  Elsie  to  her  mother's 
question.  "  There  seems  to  be  some  slight  change, 
but  to  me  he  is  just  the  same  old  Phillip,  whom 
I'm  glad  to  see  again,  and  hope  to  see  often." 

"  I  suppose  you're  married  by  this  time  ?  "  sug 
gested  Mrs.  White. 

"  I  have  never  stayed  in  one  place  long  enough 
to  get  married,  except  in  Tennessee,  and  there  I 
was  too  busy,"  laughed  Phillip. 

"  Elsie  never  has  forgot  you,"  Mrs.  White  next 
observed.  "  She  thinks  about  you  all  the  time,  and 
she's  been  talking  about  you  ever  since  we  moved 
away." 

The  connection  of  Mrs.  White's  remarks  was  so 
absurdly  palpable  that  Rensselaer  could  not  help 
letting  his  eyes  twinkle,  and  Elsie,  catching  his 
glance  of  amusement,  laughed  outright,  whereupon 
the  two  callers  joined  her,  very  much  to  Mrs. 
White's  surprise. 

"  You  was  a  mighty  busy  young  man,  even  in 
that  six  months  before  we  moved  away,"  rattled  on 
Mrs.  White.  "  We  was  all  sorry  we  had  to  go 


ELSIE  WHITE'S  SECRET  27 

and  leave  you  behind,  and  it  nigh  broke  Elsie's 
heart  But  she's  kep'  track  of  you  all  right.  She 
made  us  take  a  paper  from  back  home  on  purpose. 
First  we  saw  that  you  struck  oil  on  that  cheap  little 
two  acres  of  ground  you  scraped  together  and 
bought,  then  you  bought  some  coal-land  and  built 
a  foundry  and  a  railroad  or  what  not.  I  don't  know 
what  all  you  done,  but  Elsie  can  tell  you  every  bit 
of  it,  from  A  to  Izzard.  She's — " 

"  Mother,  did  you  call  father?  "  interrupted  Elsie 
demurely. 

"  Yes,  he'll  be  right  in.  He's  out  in  the  garden 
pottering  around.  You  know  he  always  was  crazy 
about  gardening,  and  he  ain't  working  now.  Times 
seem  to  be  slackening  up  a  bit,"  and  a  worried  look 
came  across  her  face.  Kelvin,  catching  it,  began 
to  talk  of  other  matters. 

"  How  are  the  rest  of  the  family?  "  he  asked. 

Both  Elsie  and  her  mother  looked  concerned. 

"  Grace  is  married,"  said  Mrs.  White,  and,  some 
how,  from  her  tone  he  felt  that  Grace,  Elsie's  elder 
sister,  was  not  happily  married.  "  Ed  got  his  spine 
hurt  in  a  football  game,  and  he's  up-stairs  now. 
You  must  see  him  before  you  go.  He  always  liked 
you  so  well.  All  three  of  the  children  did,  for 
that  matter,  although  none  of  them  put  a  crown 
and  a  royal  robe  on  you  like  Elsie  did.  Yes,  you 
did,  Elsie,  you  know  you  did,  and  you  never  would 


28  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

give  any  encouragement  to  a  beau,  from  that  day 
to  this.  I'm  afraid  Ed's  going  to  be  an  invalid  all 
his  life." 

"  Oh,  that  must  be  seen  to !  "  protested  Phillip, 
shocked  in  spite  of  his  embarrassment.  "  Perhaps 
a  specialist  could  bring  him  out  all  right." 

Mrs.  White  shrugged  her  shoulders  despairingly. 
"  Specialists  cost  money,  and  \ve  ain't  got  it  —  not 
these  times." 

Mr.  White  came  in,  a  man  of  about  forty-five 
and  somewhat  overweight.  He  was  a  plastering 
contractor  in  a  small  way,  and  although  he  had 
done  no  work  for  a  month  he  bore  the  marks  of 
his  trade  upon  every  garment;  even  his  hair  and 
his  mutton-chop  whiskers  seemed  rather  to  have 
been  mortar-bleached  than  to  have  grown  naturally 
gray. 

"  Hello,  Phillip!  "  said  he,  shaking  hands.  "  So 
you  were  our  Kelvin,  after  all.  I  didn't  think  that 
anybody  poor  enough  to  know  us  could  become  plu 
tocratic  enough  to  stop  at  the  Esplanade,  in  these 
times." 

"  I  don't  know  why  not,"  returned  Phillip.  "  It 
seems  to  me  that  these  times  offer  as  many,  if  not 
more,  opportunities  than  ever  to  acquire  wealth.  It 
is  perhaps  true,  however,  that  nowadays  if  a  man 
has  the  fighting  ability  to  get  a  start  at  all,  he  has 
energy  to  go  on  up;  for  the  big  fight  is  in  getting 


ELSIE  WHITE'S  SECRET  29 

out  of  the  rut.  That  explains,  perhaps,  why  we 
have  practically  no  middle  class  left  to  us.  We 
have  only  the  abnormally  rich ;  the  people  who  spend 
all  their  money  to  live  like  the  abnormally  rich,  and 
the  very  poor." 

"  Something  has  to  be  done !  "  suddenly  exploded 
Mr.  White,  bringing  down  his  right  fist  upon  the 
arm  of  his  chair.  Phillip  had  touched  upon  his 
favorite  excuse  for  oratory.  "  The  rich  are  grow 
ing  richer,  and  the  poor  are  growing  poorer,  every 
year." 

Both  Kelvin  and  Rensselaer  smiled  in  recogni 
tion  of  that  ancient  "  bromide." 

"  Conditions  must  be  changed  entirely,"  went  on 
White,  bringing  down  both  fists.  "  There  never 
was  any  monarchy  in  the  world,  where  the  condi 
tion  of  the  laboring  classes  was  worse  than  to-day, 
nor  where  the  power  of  money  was  so  unlimited. 
Look  at  Henry  Breed !  That  one  man  alone  owns 
an  enormous  share  of  all  the  property  in  this  coun 
try,  and  the  United  States  government  is  not  strong 
enough  to  collect  from  him  that  twenty-nine-million- 
dollar  fine.  It  has  been  held  up  in  the  courts  for 
fifteen  years.  Some  day  this  country  will  start 
aflame,  and  will  burn  and  destroy  itself,  to  the  hor 
ror  of  the  world." 

Dinner-time  came,  and  still  Ben  White  raved  on. 
Kelvin,  catching  here  and  there  traces  of  a  rather 


30  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

close  pinch  in  money  matters,  had  not  wanted  to 
stay  to  dinner,  but  he  saw  that  he  would  hurt  them 
if  he  refused.  Before  dinner  he  went  up  to  see  the 
bedridden  Ed,  a  youth  of  about  seventeen,  and  he 
came  down  from  that  interview  rather  sober. 

At  the  table,  fortunately  for  the  visitors,  White 
had  another  topic  of  conversation,  his  gardening. 
It  was  just  in  the  height  of  the  vegetable  season, 
and  White  was  very  proud  of  his  radishes,  his 
onions,  his  string-beans,  his  peas,  his  green  corn; 
and  really  they  were  very  fine.  He  occupied  nearly 
half  the  dinner-hour  in  talking  of  these  things,  and 
then  some  chance  remark  led  him  back  to  his  fa 
vorite  topic  —  the  crimes  of  the  plutocrats  against 
the  proletariate  —  and  he  began  to  accuse  Phillip,  as 
a  wealthy  man,  for  his  share  in  the  existing  injustice. 
It  was  in  vain  for  Phillip  to  aver  that  he  had  not 
reached  the  plutocratic  stage  by  any  means,  though 
he  was  perfectly  willing  to  do  so.  Ben  White,  hav 
ing  the  idea  once  settled  in  his  mind,  could  not  be 
changed. 

Phillip  found  opportunity,  before  they  left,  for 
a  few  minutes  with  Elsie.  He  was  allowing  him 
self  at  least  to  feel  toward  her  much  as  an 
elder  brother  might,  and  was  bluntly  frank  with 
her.  "  Things  are  not  going  right  in  a  business 
way  ?  "  he  ventured. 

"  No,"  she  replied.     "  Phillip,  I  knew  that  you 


ELSIE  WHITE'S  SECRET  31 

couldn't  help  but  see  it.  Father  seems  entirely  to 
have  lost  his  ambition.  Ed  is  an  invalid,  and  will 
be.  I  have  never  been  fitted  for  anything,  but  I 
must  go  to  work.  I  must;  there  is  no  way  out  of 
it.  Tell  me  what  I  should  do." 

It  was  one  of  those  questions  to  which  all  men 
of  affairs  are  compelled  to  listen,  but  to  which  they 
know  no  answer. 

"  It's  a  hard  problem,  Elsie,  to  find  niches  in  this 
busy  world  for  people  with  no  especial  training," 
he  told  her.  "  Stenographers  earn  good  pay,  if 
they  are  competent  and  intelligent,  but  it  takes  half 
a  year  to  learn,  and  even  then  the  advancement  in 
wages  is  very  slow." 

"  I  know,"  she  replied.  "  I've  been  all  over  that 
ground  a  score  of  times.  Clerking  brings  no  ade 
quate  returns.  I  have  about  made  up  my  mind 
what  to  do.  I  shall  apply  for  a  position  as  a  lady's 
maid  somewhere.  I'd  be  green  even  at  that,  but 
I  am  intelligent  enough  to  learn." 

Phillip  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  I'm  afraid  you 
wouldn't  like  it  very  well.  It's  a  very  hard  position. 
Unfortunately,  many  ladies  who  are  able  to  employ 
maids  haven't  very  good  tempers  at  home." 

"  What  else  is  there  to  do?  "  she  demanded. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Phillip.  "  I  rather  think, 
however,  that  the  best  way  for  me  to  help  you  would 
be  to  secure  something  for  your  father." 


32  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  He's  difficult  to  manage.  He  has  been  very 
unfortunate." 

She  was  so  emphatic  as  she  said  this,  and  looked 
so  straight  into  his  eyes,  that  lie  could  not  speak 
the  answer  which  was  on  his  tongue  —  that  Ben 
White  was  a  man  of  weak  purpose,  and  an  atro 
ciously  poor  manager. 

"  Nevertheless,  I  think  I  can  place  him,"  he  said. 

"  If  you  only  could !  "  she  replied.  "  We  would 
all  be  so  grateful." 

Her  eyes  spoke  her  gratitude  as  she  looked  up 
at  him,  and  they  spoke  of  something  else;  at  least 
so  Rensselaer  judged  as  he  came  upon  them. 

On  their  way  home,  Rensselaer,  who  had  resumed 
his  ranch  bluntness  in  the  presence  of  a  ranch 
friend,  spoke  of  the  girl.  "  Miss  White  is  a  beauti 
ful  young  woman,  beautiful  in  mind  as  well  as  in 
face  and  figure,"  he  declared. 

"  She  has  developed  remarkably,"  admitted  Kel 
vin.  "  She  was  a  little  girl  in  shoe-top  dresses 
when  I  boarded  at  their  house.  Even  then  I 
thought  her  pretty,  but  I  never  suspected  that  she 
would  become  such  a  beautiful  woman." 

"  She  is  so  much  more  than  beautiful,"  insisted 
Rensselaer.  "  She  is  the  sort  of  woman  who  would 
spend  her  whole  life  in  the  endeavor  to  make  her 
husband  happy,  and  she  would  succeed.  I  would 
swear  that  she  is  of  even  temper  and  unfaltering 


ELSIE  WHITE'S  SECRET  33 

steadfastness;  moreover,  she  is  intelligent  enough 
to  keep  pace  with  her  husband,  no  matter  what 
his  progress." 

"  She  is  a  fine  girl,"  admitted  Kelvin,  pleased 
that  Rensselaer  should  have  been  so  favorably  im 
pressed  with  his  friend.  "  Isn't  it  startling,  though, 
to  think  how  much  her  mother  must  have  looked 
like  her  at  the  same  age  ?  " 

"  No,"  stoutly  maintained  Rensselaer.  "  Her 
mother  is  only  a  pitiful  example  of  what  worry  and 
hard  work  and  damnable  poverty  will  do  for  a 
woman.  In  happier  circumstances,  at  from  forty 
to  forty-five  she  would  still  have  been  a  handsome 
woman,  one  who  would  be  a  living  guaranty  of  her 
daughter's  continued  beauty." 

"  I'll  think  it  over,"  said  Phillip  mockingly. 
"  Already  I  feel  myself  impressed." 

"  You  are  very  lukewarm  about  it !  "  charged 
Rensselaer.  "  Don't  you  realize,  Kelvin,  that  the 
girl  has  made  a  demigod  of  you  ever  since  she  was 
a  child,  and  that  to-day  her  impression  was  only 
strengthened  ?  Right  now  she  would  marry  you  in 
a  minute,  and  you  would  insure  yourself  a  life  of 
happiness." 

"  You  have  rather  a  romantic  imagination, 
Bert,"  laughed  Phillip,  with  that  laugh  concealing 
his  true  attitude  in  the  matter,  whereupon  Rensse 
laer  gave  up  the  topic  with  disgust. 


CHAPTER  IV 

IN     WHICH     "  THE     CASH     BEAR  "     EXPLAINS     WHY 
THERE  IS  NO  MONEY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

IT  did  not  take  long  for  the  Street  to  know  that 
there  was  a  new  "  bear "  influence  at  work. 
When,  on  the  first  morning,  some  twenty 
stocks  were  sold  in  one-thousand-share  lots,  no  at 
tention  was  paid.  When,  however,  on  the  second 
and  third  and  fourth  mornings  the  day's  busi 
ness  was  opened  by  the  offer  of  one  thousand  shares 
of  each  of  these  stocks,  the  coincidence  began  to 
be  noticed,  and  when  the  same  phenomenon  oc 
curred  on  the  fifth  and  sixth  and  seventh  mornings, 
it  began  to  be  not  a  coincidence,  but  a  design,  and 
all  the  floor  was  talking  of  ft. 

The  stocks  had  been  disposed  of  without  diffi 
culty,  though  there  was  no  particular  eagerness,  for 
the  market  was  worse  than  sluggish.  Now,  how 
ever,  a  certain  "  bull  "  coterie  of  the  railroad  crowd, 
scenting  here  a  deliberate  attempt  to  force  the  mar 
ket,  combined  in  a  more  or  less  aggressive  counter 
attack,  and  within  another  week  did  actually 

34 


THE  CASH  BEAR  EXPLAINS         35 

succeed  in  forcing  up  the  entire  line  some  ten  points. 
This  action,  however,  had  no  effect  upon  Phillip 
Kelvin.  Every  morning,  attended  by  big  Sam  and 
the  inevitable  suit-case,  he  made  the  round  of  his 
five  chosen  brokers  to  dispose  of  his  solid  cash, 
and  every  morning  those  five  brokers  sent  their 
gladiators  upon  the  floor  of  the  Stock  Exchange  to 
sell  the  monotonous  one  thousand  shares  of  each 
of  the  twenty  stocks  which  had  been  chosen  for 
attack.  On  the  day  that  the  bull  movement  had 
forced  stocks  the  highest,  Galleon  remonstrated  with 
him. 

"Look  here,  Mr.  Kelvin,"  said  he;  "you  are 
bucking  up  against  some  of  the  biggest  men  on  the 
Street,  a  group  of  half  a  dozen  men,  each  of  whom 
could  probably  swallow  you  whole  in  a  financial 
way.  If  they  get  after  your  scalp  I'm  afraid  you 
are  in  for  losing  a  tremendous  amount  of  money." 

"  You  have  everything  margined  fifty  points  ?  " 

"  Yes.  But  I  have  known  this  same  group  to 
manipulate  the  market  to  a  seventy-point  rise." 

Young  Kelvin  was  quite  complacent  about  it. 
"  They  are  doing  me  a  service,"  said  he.  "  The 
margins  I  have  put  up  on  the  stocks  previously 
bought  are  ample.  They  are  not  going  to  force 
prices  far  enough  to  make  you  call  for  more  mar 
gin,  but  if  they  do  the  margin  will  be  forthcoming. 


36  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

In  the  meantime,  however,  they  are  enabling  me  to 
sell  at  a  much  higher  price.  They  are  playing  my 
own  game  for  me." 

"  I  presume  you  know  your  own  business,"  re 
turned  Galleon  dryly;  "but  remember  that  I  have 
warned  you." 

"  And  remember  that  I  have  warned  you ! "  re 
torted  Kelvin.  "  Be  sure  you  keep  my  cash  in  a 
safe  place,  and  do  not  entrust  it  to  a  bank.  In 
normal  times  a  bank  is  a  safer  place  than  a  hole 
in  the  ground  for  money,  but  not  in  these  times." 

Galleon  glanced  at  the  financial  journal  upon  his 
desk,  and  took  off  his  eye-glasses  to  wipe  them. 
"  Except  for  the  one  trifle  that  currency  is  a  little 
tight,  I  see  no  cloud  on  the  horizon,"  he  observed. 

"  I  am  a  better  financial  weather-prophet,  for 
this  one  time,  than  the  Wall  Street  Journal,"  de 
clared  Phillip  confidently.  "  In  a  very  few  days  I 
will  show  you  a  cloud  that  will  cover  this  entire 
district  like  a  blanket  of  midnight.  I  know  some 
thing,  I  tell  you." 

Galleon  listened  incredulously,  but  he  neverthe 
less  took  Kelvin's  order  and  telephoned  Rensselaer 
on  'Change  to  sell  the  usual  thousand  shares  each 
of  the  four  stocks  on  which  he  was  working. 

This  was  the  fourth  or  fifth  time  since  he  had 
first  come  into  the  office  that  young  Kelvin  had 
ventured  such  dire  predictions,  and  in  spite  of  the 


THE  CASH  BEAR  EXPLAINS         37 

fact  that,  except  for  the  growing  scarcity  of  actual 
currency,  there  was  no  hint  or  trace  of  trouble  to 
come,  Henry  Galleon  began  to  be  a  trifle  impressed 
by  them,  so  much  so  that  he  began  speaking  of  the 
matter  to  others  of  his  kind.  In  the  offices  of 
Raleigh  and  Raleigh,  of  Wilde  and  Company,  of 
Booker  and  Watson,  and  of  R.  F.  Eldridge,  the 
other  brokerage  concerns  who  were  acting  as  Kel 
vin's  agents,  Phillip  dropped  the  same  seed,  and 
from  these  five  centers,  aided  by  Rensselaer,  there 
gradually  radiated  a  note  of  inquiry".  Was  the 
market  in  a  really  healthy  condition?  Was  the  era 
of  stability  on  the  wane?  Was  there  an  impending 
break  ?  No  one  could  tell. 

In  the  meantime  Kelvin  steadily  sold  his  twenty 
stocks  in  one-thousand-share  lots.  With  his  pe 
culiar  methods  he  could  not  remain  long  incognito. 
He  became  known  as  the  "  Cash  Bear,"  and  there 
were  a  dozen  conflicting  stories  as  to  how  he  had 
got  his  money. 

Young  Eldridge  took  a  great  fancy  to  him,  and 
before  he  had  been  on  the  market  a  week  had  him 
in  at  Sherry's  for  dinner  with  a  lot  of  the  big 
guns  of  the  market.  It  was  discovered  that  Kelvin 
distinctly  knew  how  to  comport  himself  in  any 
company.  He  said  very  little  about  business.  He 
told  a  clean  story  or  two,  quite  effectively,  but  the 
only  thing  of  note  he  said  during  that  dinner  was 


38  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

that  he  confidently  looked,  very  shortly,  for  the 
biggest  crash  in  the  history  of  the  Street.  They 
heard  this  remark  in  amused  silence,  but  in  the  main 
they  liked  him.  Rollins,  one  of  the  conservatives 
of  the  railroad  group,  and  of  vast  experience,  was 
the  only  one  who  studied  Kelvin  seriously,  but  then 
Rollins  himself  was  serious  at  all  times. 

"On  what  do  you  base  that  queer  prophecy?" 
he  wanted  to  know. 

"  I'm  not  ready  to  tell  you  just  yet,"  returned 
Phillip,  smiling,  "  but  it  is  coming." 

"  I  know  why,"  put  in  Pellman,  one  of  the  more 
reckless  operators  of  the  railroad  group.  "  It's  be 
cause  our  young  friend  is  on  the  short  side  of  the 
market  for  all  the  real  cash  in  the  country.  There 
must  come  a  panic.  He's  like  the  boy  who  simply 
had  to  find  a  groundhog  in  the  empty  hole,  because 
his  family  was  out  of  meat." 

They  were  quite  content  to  laugh  at  Kelvin.  He 
was  necessarily  "  green,"  being  young  and  new  to 
the  Street;  but  it  was  generally  conceded  that  his 
resources  were  remarkable,  and  they  had  respect  for 
his  resources  if  not  for  himself.  Rollins,  however, 
got  Phillip  to  one  side  after  the  dinner. 

"  I'm  very  curious  about  the  slump  you  predict," 
he  said.  "  I  hope  it's  true.  I  want  to  buy  some 
railroad  stock,  and  it  can't  go  any  too  low  to  suit 
me." 


— 


ASH  BEAR  EXPLAINS         39 

Phillip  looked  at  bin.  in  musing  silence.  He  liked 
Rollins,  a  clean,  well-set-up  man,  with  a  clean  life 
and  an  honest  one  written  all  over  him. 

"  You  buy  outright  only,  I  believe,  Mr.  Rollins," 
he  observed. 

"  Outright  only,"  replied  Rollins. 

"  Then  wait.  There  will  be  some  bargains  by 
and  by,"  declared  Phillip,  so  seriously  that  Rollins 
was  impressed. 

Kelvin  had  been  in  the  market  more  than  a 
month,  steadily  selling  all  that  time,  when  one  even 
ing,  in  a  private  dining-room  at  Sherry's,  with  al 
most  the  same  crowd,  Rollins  found  that  he  had 
no  cash,  and  sent  dowr  a  check  to  the  manager,  with 
a  request  that  he  send  up  the  currency.  The  man 
ager  himself  came  up  vith  the  check  in  hand,  and 
very  much  worried. 

"  Very  sorry,  Mr.  Rollins,"  said  he,  "  but  I  have 
not  the  currency  in  the  house.  We  have  had  no 
currency  to  speak  of  for  several  days.  I  don't  know 
why  it  is,  but  there  seems  to  be  a  tremendous 
scarcity  of  cash." 

"  No  matter,"  returned  Rollins  with  a  slight 
frown,  tearing  up  the  check.  "  I  will  get  it  else 
where." 

"  Really  I  am  sorry,  sir,"  persisted  the  manager. 
"  I  would  offer  to  send  out  and  get  it  for  you,  but 
I  have  tried  twice  to-day,  and  there  is  no  currency 


40  THE  CASH  INTRIGT".  i 

to  be  had.  I  will  send  up  '.-o  the  Night  and  Day 
Bank  for  you." 

"Never  mind,  I'm  going  that  way  myself. 
What  seems  to  be  the  matter?  " 

"  I  don't  know,  sir,"  responded  the  manager. 
"  Trade  was  never  better.  Our  regular  customers 
seem  to  have  plenty  of  money,  but  no  currency. 
There  used  to  be  a  certain  portion  of  our  customers 
who  invariably  paid  in  cash ;  now  even  these  merely 
sign  the  dinner-slips  and  pay  by  check.  I  don't  be 
lieve  I  have  seen  a  thousand  dollars  in  cash  in  a 
week,  except  what  I  drew  myself  for  our  pay-roll 
here." 

"  That  seems  to  be  a  general  complaint,"  re 
marked  Pellman,  after  the  manager  had  left  the 
room.  "  There  is  a  search;  •  of  money  everywhere. 
Yesterday  my  check  was  refused  at  two  hotels.  I 
don't  understand  it." 

"  I  can  tell  you,"  said  Kelvin  quietly.  "  Within 
the  past  year  nearly  a  billion  dollars  of  actual  cur 
rency  have  been  entirely  withdrawn  from  cir 
culation." 

They  were  slow  to  understand  how  this  could  be. 

"  I  have  seen  no  mention  of  such  a  withdrawal," 
urged  Pellman.  "  I  don't  believe  there  is  a  man 
on  the  Street  who  follows  the  fluctuations  of  cur 
rency  any  closer  than  I  do.  Where  and  how  has 
this  amount  of  money  disappeared  ?  " 


THE  CASH  BEAR  EXPLAINS         41 

"  In  bread,"  declared  Kelvin.  "  The  one  com 
modity  in  this  country  which  must  invariably  be 
paid  for  in  cash  is  the  five-cent  loaf  of  bread." 

A  short  laugh  ran  around  the  board. 

"  I  don't  see  where  that  could  amount  to  a  bil 
lion  of  actual  currency,"  remonstrated  Ralph 
Eld  ridge. 

"  No  ? "  replied  Kelvin.  "  I  will  show  you. 
Twelve  months  ago  Henry  Breed  quietly  issued 
from  his  central  organization,  the  United  Food 
Company  of  New  Jersey,  a  general  order  that  all 
bread  and  cereal  foodstuffs  must  be  sold  for  spot 
cash  only.  The  receipts  from  these  sales  were  not 
to  be  deposited  in  banks,  but  were  to  be  shipped  in 
currency  to  the  general  offices  of  his  company.  Do 
you  know  what  this  meant?  Breed  began  as  an 
obscure  miller.  He  formed  combination  after  com 
bination  of  flouring-mills  until,  twenty  years  after 
he  started  that  task,  he  practically  owned  every  grist 
mill  and  every  grain-elevator  in  the  United  States, 
accomplishing  that  through  an  elaborate  system  of 
rebating  on  wheat  and  flour  shipments.  Every 
farmer  who  raised  wheat,  raised  it  to  sell  to  Henry 
Breed  at  prices  set  by  Breed,  for  there  was  no  other 
buyer.  His  next  step  was  to  establish  the  immense 
bakery  system  which  now  bears  his  name.  Flour 
was  set  at  such  a  price  that  families  could  not  af 
ford  to  buy  it,  and  that  opposing  bakeries  were 


42 

forced  out  of  business.  Now,  in  all  the  centers  of 
population,  he  has  his  immense  mechanical  bread- 
furnaces,  from  which  his  bread-trains  rush  before 
daylight  to  distributing-stations  in  all  the  small 
towns,  while  his  remarkable  automobile  service  sup 
plies  the  cities.  By  concentration  of  manufacture 
he  claims  to  have  been  of  actual  benefit  to  the  coun 
try,  furnishing  a  better  grade  of  bread  at  a  lower 
price  than  was  ever  known  before,  and  making  more 
profit  on  it  than  individual  bakeries  ever  did." 

"  That's  all  an  old  story,"  said  Pellman  impa 
tiently.  "  He  is  a  wonderful  man,  but  I  don't  see 
yet  what  that  has  to  do  with  the  scarcity  of  cash." 

"  It  has  just  this  much  to  do  with  it,"  Kelvin 
went  on,  standing  up  to  gain  impressiveness. 
"  Breed  pays  everything  by  check,  hypothecating 
some  of  his  immense  stock  holdings  and  thus  turn 
ing  them  into  cash.  He  supplies  nearly  ninety  mil 
lion  people  with  every  ounce  of  bread  they  eat,  with 
every  spoonful  of  cereal  food  upon  every  breakfast- 
table  in  the  United  States,  with  every  particle  of 
pastry  served  in  this  broad  land  of  ours.  Think 
for  one  moment.  Through  this  monopoly  of  all 
cereal  foodstuffs,  every  one  of  ninety  million  people 
pays  a  tribute  to  him  of,  on  the  average,  about 
three  cents  a  day,  which  amounts  daily  to  over  two 
and  a  half  million  dollars,  or  in  the  past  year  to 
nearly  a  billion  dollars.  Actual  cash,  gentlemen, 


THE  CASH  BEAR  EXPLAINS         43 

nearly  a  billion  of  actual  currency  gone  from  our 
already  limited  circulation !  " 

One-half  of  them  had  out  their  pencils  and  were 
figuring  upon  the  backs  of  cards  and  envelopes;  the 
other  half  were  looking  over  their  shoulders.  In 
the  face  of  every  man  was  the  intense  frown  of 
concentration. 

"  Nine  hundred  and  ninety-five  and  a  half  mil 
lion,  to  be  more  exact,"  corrected  Pellman.  "  We 
still  have  nearly  two  and  a  half  billion  with  which 
to  transact  business,  however." 

"  You  are  making  an  error  when  you  estimate 
upon  our  approximate  three  and  a  half  billions  of 
cash.  You  are  not  deducting  the  government  cash 
reserves  in  the  United  States  treasury  and  sub- 
treasuries.  You  are  not  deducting  our  billion  and 
a  half  of  gold  which  practically  never  sees  the 
light  of  day,  nor  emerges  from  its  sealed  canvas 
bags  in  the  bank  vaults.  You  are  not  deducting 
the  currency  reserves  in  the  approximate  seven 
thousand  National  Banks  in  this  country.  You  are 
not  deducting  the  reserves  in  private  banks,  nor  the 
immense  number  of  small  private  hoardings.  The 
per-capita  circulation  of  money  in  this  country  is 
estimated  at  thirty-five  dollars.  In  reality,  allow 
ing  for  these  reserves,  the  actual  amount  is  prob 
ably  but  a  little  over  fifteen  dollars  per-capita,  of 
actual,  circulating,  hand-to-hand  cash.  Of  this,  over 


44  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

ten  dollars  pcr-capita  is  now  in  the  possession  of 
Henry  Breed,  and  this  money  has  seeped  away  so 
insidiously  that  not  one  of  you  shrewd  financiers, 
who  make  a  knowledge  of  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
money  your  business,  has  been  aware  of  it.  Gentle 
men,  it  is  nearly  all  gone  now,  and  soon  there  will 
be  no  money  whatever  in  the  United  States! " 

They  went  away  from  that  dinner  very  quietly, 
and  each  man  put  carefully  into  his  pocket  the  en 
velope  or  card  upon  which  he  had  been  figuring. 

That  night,  in  clubs  and  exclusive  hotels,  even 
in  private  homes,  there  was  much  quiet  selling  of 
stock,  and  the  Atlantic  cable  was  busy  with  selling 
orders  for  the  London  Exchange.  There  had  been 
eight  of  the  mighty  kings  of  finance  at  that  dinner, 
either  in  person  or  by  their  near  representatives ! 

Rollins  had  walked  away  with  Kelvin. 

"  This  is  a  marvelous  thing  you  have  been  tell 
ing  us,"  said  he ;  "  but  an  incendiary  thing,  too. 
The  strange  part  is  that  it  should  have  remained  for 
you  alone  to  discover  it,  and  to  profit  by  it.  How 
did  you  find  it  out  ?  " 

"  Well,  with  ten  thousand  distributing  agents, 
each  one  instructed  to  remit  in  currency  only,  it 
would  be  very  strange  if  there  were  not  a  leak, 
even  though  every  agent  was  cautioned,  as  he  was, 
on  pain  of  dismissal,  not  to  reveal  it.  Doubtless  a 
host  of  people  other  than  myself  know  of  it,  but 


THE  CASH  BEAR  EXPLAINS        45 

the  individual  amounts  were  so  small  that  no  one 
paid  any  attention." 

"That's  precisely  it,"  insisted  Rollins.  "It  re 
mained  for  you  to  appreciate  and  take  advantage 
of  the  enormous  possibilities  of  the  thing;  to  under 
stand  its  magnitude  in  the  aggregate.  You  are  a 
great  man,  Mr.  Kelvin.  You  have  been  selling  all 
the  time,  haven't  you?" 

"  Every  morning,"  admitted  Phillip,  smiling. 

"  You  must  have  an  enormous  account  by  this 
time." 

"  Close  to  seven  hundred  thousand  shares,"  con 
fessed  Phillip. 

"  And  you  held  back  your  explanation  of  all  this 
until  you  had  acquired  all  you  wanted?  I  thought 
so.  Well,  it's  an  ill  wind  that  blows  nobody  any 
good.  I  want  some  railroad  shares.  I  see  now 
that  your  advice  was  sound;  I'll  wait  until  it  goes 
down  to  bargain  prices;  but  I  suppose  you  realize 
what  a  calamity  you  are  going  to  bring  on  the 
country  ?  " 

"  I  think  I  do,"  and  Phillip's  jaws  closed  with  a 
snap. 

Rollins  looked  at  him  in  slightly  disapproving 
speculation. 

"  Gad!  "  he  said.  "  Some  of  the  big  men  here 
have  been  pirates,  but  you  will  be  the  most  ruthless 
wrecker  who  ever  got  into  Wall  Street." 


46  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  No,"  returned  Phillip  .with  a  curious  smile. 
"  You  have  read  me  wrong.  I  am  not  a  pirate ;  I 
am  a  reformer." 

"  I  see,"  concluded  Rollins;  "  in  the  same  manner 
that  the  Inquisition  reformed  the  heretics." 

"  I  decline  to  be  interviewed,"  declared  Phillip. 
"  Are  you  going  up-town  ?  " 

At  the  Esplanade  Kelvin  found  Rensselaer. 

"  Have  you  been  waiting  long,  Bert  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Not  very,"  yawned  Rensselaer,  "  except  that 
I'm  eaten  alive  with  curiosity.  It  isn't  like  you 
to  insist  that  I  should  break  an  engagement  in 
order  to  see  you  immediately  after  dinner." 

"  I'm  very  sorry,  but  I  had  to  impose  upon  you," 
said  Phillip.  "  You  are  the  only  chap  on  my  list 
who  knows  a  lot  of  the  newspaper  crowd.  I  have 
an  item  for  them,  and  I  don't  want  to  give  it  out 
myself." 

He  told  Rensselaer  what  had  transpired  at  the 
dinner.  Rensselaer  clapped  him  on  the  back  and 
laughed  long  and  loud. 

"  The  newspapers  will  eat  that  story !  "  he  de 
clared.  "It's  a  wonderful  thing!  Great  Scott, 
man,  how  many  shares  are  you  short  ?  " 

"  About  seven  hundred  thousand." 

"  Then  every  point  drop  means  seven  hundred 
thousand  dollars  to  you.  This  will  send  the  line 


THE  CASH  BEAR  EXPLAINS        47 

down  thirty  points.  Let  me  figure  a  minute.  Why, 
that's  twenty-one  million  dollars ! " 

"  I  figure  on  a  little  bit  more  than  that,"  returned 
Kelvin  dryly ;  "  but  don't  let  that  distress  you  any, 
Bert." 

"  You  might  have  given  a  fellow  a  tip,"  com 
plained  Rensselaer. 

"  The  time  was  never  ripe  for  a  man  to  speculate 
on  small  margin,"  said  Phillip.  "  A  concerted  bull 
movement  might  have  forced  the  market  up  ten  or 
fifteen  points  at  any  time.  Not  now,  however. 
How  much  money  have  you  ?  " 

"  A  little  over  two  thousand  dollars  of  my  own," 
replied  Rensselaer,  "  but  I  can  get  hold  of  ten  thou 
sand  more." 

"  Do  you  know  any  way  that  you  can  place  your 
twelve  thousand  on  the  London  market  in  the 
morning?  " 

"  I  think  I  can." 

"  Get  it  down  then  as  quickly  as  possible.  I  don't 
want  the  newspaper  men  to  have  this  before  mid 
night,  but  they  should  have  it  by  then.  That  will 
give  you  plenty  of  time  to  place  your  little  ten- 
point  bet." 

"  Me  for  it ! "  said  Rensselaer,  jumping  up. 
"  Watch  me  make  the  sidewalk  smoke."  At  the 
door,  however,  he  paused.  "  And  just  to  think,"  he 


48  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

said,  "  that  all  this  glittering  opportunity  comes 
about  through  old  Henry  Breed.  Why,  I  have  an 
aunt  out  at  Forest  Lakes,  a  guest  of  Breed's,  she 
calls  herself;  but  she's  a  guest  for  pay,  and  is  a  sort 
of  bear  leader  for  the  fair  Lillian.  She  would  be 
above  taking  money  for  coaching  Lillian,  and  after 
ward  inducting  her  into  society,  but  she's  not  above 
letting  Breed  *  handle  her  investments  '  of  a  paltry 
ten  thousand  dollars  on  a  guaranteed  return  of  one 
hundred  per  cent." 

'*If  you  want  to  get  those  selling  orders  away 
you  had  better  hurry,"  suggested  Kelvin,  looking 
at  his  watch.  "  I  have  an  idea  that  the  cables  will 
be  loaded  with  just  such  messages  before  morning." 

Shortly  after  midnight,  Kelvin,  who  had  laid 
down  in  his  clothes,  was  awakened  by  the  ringing 
of  his  telephone  bell,  and  from  then  on  until  morn 
ing  he  was  kept  busy  answering  calls  from  the 
various  newspaper  offices.  He  gave  them  all  the 
information  he  could.  They  besieged  him  for 
news,  for  photographs,  for  the  story  of  his  life, 
for  his  views  on  everything  from  agnosticism  to 
tomato-culture,  and  in  the  morning,  having  given 
out  all  the  information  he  had  at  hand,  he  was  com 
pelled  to  go  to  another  hotel  incognito  to  escape 
the  reporters.  He  had  brought  to  him  all  the  morn 
ing  papers,  and  read  with  smiles  the  mass  of 
na'ive  exaggerations.  He  was  the  shrewdest  man 


THE  CASH  BEAR  EXPLAINS         49 

that  had  ever  come  into  Wall  Street ;  he  was  a  com 
bination  of  all  the  great  financiers  in  America,  from 
Vanderbilt  to  Harriman;  he  had  sold  short  any 
where  from  one  to  ten  million  shares  of  stock;  his 
age  ranged  from  sixteen  to  sixty,  his  complexion 
from  blond  to  brunette,  and  his  character  from  a 
humming-bird's  to  a  vampire's.  About  only  two 
things  was  there  no  disagreement:  he  had  con 
ducted  his  commendable  transactions  with  real 
money,  and  Henry  Breed,  whose  greed  had  made 
this  possible,  was  the  most  profound  scoundrel  of 
the  century ! 

While  he  was  still  reading  these  accounts,  the 
Stock  Exchange  opened,  and  it  opened  with  a  rush, 
with  practically  every  trader  on  the  floor  wanting 
to  sell,  and  few  wanting  to  buy.  Within  five  min 
utes  of  the  opening  the  place  was  a  pandemonium, 
and  he  had  to  be  a  Hercules  who  held  buying  orders. 
The  peculiar  part  of  the  movement  was  that  it 
started  simultaneously  in  nearly  every  trading 
group  upon  the  floor.  Men  with  orders  to  sell  five 
thousand  shares  of  U.  P.  would  no  sooner  execute 
that  commission  than  they  would  plunge  into  the 
Steel  Common  group  with  equal  frenzy.  The  floor 
of  the  Stock  Exchange  began  to  be  littered  with 
little  scraps  of  white  paper,  torn  in  sheer  nervous 
ness,  until,  as  the  excitement  increased,  there  was 
scarcely  any  of  the  floor  visible.  The  telephone 


50  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

call-board  was  a  solid  block  of  white  numbers,  with 
here  and  there  a  twinkling  black  space  as  the  call 
was  answered.  Athletic  "  floor-partners,"  carefully 
selected  for  the  rare  combination  of  physical 
prowess  and  nimble  wit,  would  plunge,  red- faced, 
fighting  with  shoulders  and  elbows  and  hands, 
through  equally  excited  groups  of  forty  or  fifty, 
and  in  the  madness  of  the  moment  would  grasp 
an  unfortunate  buying  clerk  by  the  cravat  to  chain 
his  attention  and  secure  the  nod  that  meant  a  con 
summated  deal.  Men  with  orders  to  wait  for  a 
price  bellowed  in  sheer  nervousness.  It  was  a  roar 
ing,  shrieking,  cursing  hell,  in  which  clothing  was 
rent,  and  men,  either  white-faced  or  purple-faced, 
according  to  their  temperaments,  fought  like  fero 
cious  dogs  for  a  mere  glance  from  a  man  who  had 
buying  orders. 

By  three  o'clock  every  security  listed  on  the 
Stock  Exchange  had  dropped  twenty  points  a  share. 
Many  of  them  had  gone  still  lower.  That  after 
noon  the  private  dining-rooms  of  all  the  exclusive 
cafes  were  filled  with  grave  men,  certain  groups 
planning  to  go  with  the  movement,  and  others, 
more  far-seeing,  devising  ways  and  means  to  stem 
the  oncoming  tide. 

Pellman  himself  took  a  train  to  Forest  Lakes, 
the  country  home  of  Henry  Breed.  The  six  big 
gest  railroad  operators  in  the  Street  had  met  with 


THE  CASH  BEAR  EXPLAINS          51 

Pellman,  and  had  decided  that  if  any  man  could 
influence  Breed,  Pellman  was  the  man.  Pellman 
himself  was  dubious.  He  had  once  angered  Breed, 
but,  for  that  matter,  Breed  had  engaged  in  some 
quarrel  or  other  with  every  man  in  the  market. 


CHAPTER  V, 

THE  RICHEST   MAN   IN  THE   WORLD  IS   IN   NO   CON 
DITION  TO  TALK  BUSINESS 

PELLMAN  approached  Forest  Lakes  with  a 
confidence  that  diminished  as  he  came  in 
sight  of  the  forbidding  gray  stone  wall  which 
surrounded  Breed's  immense  estate.  For  nearly  a 
mile  this  wall  hemmed  in  one  side  of  the  country 
road;  beyond  that  barrier  the  estate  was  heavily 
wooded,  and  where  the  wall  dipped  across  little  val 
leys,  Pellman  peered  over  the  top  of  it  with  much 
curiosity.  He  caught  the  glint  of  water  amid  the 
trees ;  he  saw  a  deer  stalking  calmly  across  a  glade. 
Pellman,  while  he  had  frequently  been  a  guest  at 
Breed's  other  houses,  had  never  been  at  Forest 
Lakes,  nor  had  any  of  his  friends.  This  was 
Breed's  retreat  from  the  world,  where  none  but 
the  family  and  servants  ever  penetrated. 

At  the  great  iron  gates  a  grizzled  old  woodsman 
with  a  gun  took  Pellman's  card  through  the  grille, 
and  stepping  inside  a  small  lodge  telephoned  to  the 
house.  He  came  out  again  in  a  few  moments. 

52 


RICHEST  MAN  IN  THE  WORLD      53 

"  Mr.  Breed  is  ill,"  he  said.  "  The  doctor  has 
forbidden  him  to  see  any  one." 

"  Is  the  doctor  in  the  house?  "  asked  Pellman. 

"  Yes,  sir.  It  is  Mr.  Breed's  own  doctor.  He 
lives  here." 

Pellman  proffered  a  bill.  "  Telephone  the  doctor 
that  I  would  like  to  see  him." 

"  All  right,  sir,"  said  the  gate-keeper,  and  turned 
slowly  away,  but  he  did  not  touch  the  money.  He 
was  gone  about  five  minutes.  "  Doctor  Zelplian 
says  that  you  may  come  up  to  the  house,"  he  an 
nounced  upon  his  return. 

Pellman  frowned  as  the  big  gates  swung  open, 
admitting  his  limousine ;  he  frowned  still  more  when 
the  chauffeur  was  stopped  just  inside  the  gates, 
while  three  other  bronzed  and  grizzled  woodsmen, 
each  with  a  gun,  trudged  down  along  the  inside  of 
the  wall  and  stared  into  his  car,  fixing  his  features 
firmly  in  their  memories. 

At  the  door  an  almost  decrepit  servant,  not  in 
livery,  ushered  him  into  a  dim  old  parlor,  where 
rusty  horsehair  furniture  bulged  and  crinkled  with 
the  everlasting  dampness.  There  was  a  rustle  of 
silk  in  the  hall,  and  a  girl  of  about  twenty  stopped 
for  a  moment  in  the  door.  She  was  of  unusual 
beauty,  dark  haired  and  dark  eyed,  with  a  certain 
quick,  lithe  movement  that  told  of  nervous  energy 


54  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

gone  riot  for  want  of  outlet.  Her  face  was  an 
elongated  oval  with  an  olive  under-tint,  and  cheeks 
and  lips  were  of  a  dark  redness  that  told  of  over 
much  blood.  For  just  a  moment  she  stood, 
a  startling  figure  in  her  semi-fitted  house-gown  of 
wood-brown  silk,  then  she  moved  swiftly  away,  and 
her  place  in  the  doorway  was  taken  by  Doctor 
Zelphan,  an  inordinately  squat  and  heavy-set  man, 
whose  face,  except  for  his  eyes  and  knob  of  a  nose, 
was  entirely  concealed  by  a  stiff  bush  of  red  beard. 
Upon  his  eyes  were  glasses  of  extraordinary  thick 
ness,  but  behind  the  lenses  they  nevertheless  shone 
shrewdly. 

"Doctor  Zelphan?"  asked  Pellman,  rising. 

"  I  am,  sir,"  replied  the  other  with  a  bare  trace 
of  foreign  accent.  "  You  wish  to  see  Mr.  Breed." 
It  was  not  a  question;  it  was  a  mere  statement. 

"  On  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance." 

"  Impossible,"  declared  the  doctor.  "  It  is  not 
only  my  orders,  but  his  own,  that  no  one  be  ad 
mitted  on  any  exciting  errand." 

He  stood  uncompromisingly  against  the  door, 
and  the  visitor  judged  that  the  door  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  hall  led  to  Breed's  apartments.  Pell 
man  considered  a  few  moments  in  silence. 

"  Is  he  able  to  talk  at  all  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Yes,"  admitted  the  other,  and   for  a  fleeting 


RICHEST  MAN  IN  THE  WORLD      55 

instant  Pellman  thought  that  he  had  detected  a 
twinkle  in  Zelphan's  eye. 

"  Then  I  must  see  him,"  insisted  Pellman.  "  We 
are  in  the  throes  of  a  national  calamity !  " 

He  held  out  to  Zelphan  a  copy  of  an  afternoon 
paper,  aflame  with  the  terror  of  the  withdrawal  of 
currency  from  circulation,  with  the  panic  of  the 
morning,  with  dire  prophecy  for  the  future.  A 
certain  rearrangement  of  Zelphan's  beard  showed 
that  he  smiled  as  he  read. 

"  Mr.  Breed  is  in  no  fit  condition  to  talk  over 
such  matters,"  said  the  doctor,  giving  back  the 
paper  with  aggravating  indifference. 

"  He  must  be  in  condition,"  insisted  Pellman, 
who  was  a  tall,  raw-boned  fellow  with  jaws  like 
a  vise,  and  with  broad  nostrils  from  which,  when 
under  excitement,  he  breathed  like  a  wind-blown 
horse.  "  Mr.  Breed  alone  could  stop  this." 

Zelphan  turned  suddenly  and  strode  to  the  door 
across  the  hall.  "  Come  in,"  he  invited. 

Pellman  followed  him  into  a  great,  dim  library, 
where,  though  the  time  was  late  in  spring  and  the 
sun-dried  air  outside  was  uncomfortably  warm,  a 
huge  wood-fire  was  burning,  casting  its  fitful  red 
glow  into  the  farthest  corners  of  the  dark  room. 
Near  the  window,  but  facing  the  fire,  sat  the  re 
markable  man  who,  by  his  ingenuity  and  enterprise, 


56  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

had  built  up  the  most  enormous  business  in  the 
world,  and  who,  through  it,  had  gained  control  of 
not  less  than  one-thirtieth  of  the  capitalized  indus 
tries  of  the  United  States.  He  proved  to  be  tre 
mendously  tall,  in  spite  of  his  slightly  stooped  shoul 
ders,  when  he  rose  to  meet  Pellman.  His  head  was 
entirely  bald  and  of  an  ugly  shape,  all  flat  spaces 
and  sharp  angles.  He  breathed  Pellman's  name, 
and  gave  him  a  limp,  fish-cold  hand,  then  sank  back 
to  his  seat  and  looked  indifferently  at  the  fire  again. 

"  I  suppose  you  have  heard,  Breed,"  began  Pell 
man,  "  that  a  panic  has  broken  loose  to-day?  " 

Breed  shook  his  head.  "  No,  I  had  not,"  said  he 
with  entire  unconcern.  , 

"  It  has.  To-day  is  but  the  mild  beginning  of  it, 
but  we  fellows  who  have  been  through  it  know  pre 
cisely  what  is  to  follow.  By  to-morrow  the  coun 
try  will  be  crazy,  and  there  is  no  telling  where  the 
ruin  will  end." 

Breed  looked  into  the  fire  and  merely  nodded. 

"  The  entire  board  has  gone  down  twenty  points 
or  more  to-day.  From  the  temper  of  the  Street 
I  look  for  all  stocks  to  make  a  new  low  record." 

Breed  nodded  at  the  fire.  Pellman  began  to 
breathe  hard,  a  sign  that  his  temper  was  rising.  He 
had  been  unable  to  arouse  the  slightest  trace  of  in 
terest  in  Breed. 

"  Cereal  stocks  have  suffered  more  than  any  of 


RICHEST  MAN  IN  THE  WORLD      57 

them ! "  He  had  saved  this  shot.  The  cereal 
stocks  had  originated  with  Breed  himself ;  they  were 
a  part  of  him,  they  represented  his  life's  work, 
and  were  quoted  strong,  always.  To  Pellman's  in 
tense  disgust  Breed  only  looked  into  the  fire,  and 
nodded  as  one  who  had  heard  a  pleasing  tale. 

"  Look  here,  Breed,"  exclaimed  Pellman,  "  you 
are  going  to  ruin  all  the  business  interests  in  the 
country.  You  are  going  to  break  banks,  stop  fac 
tories,  and  cause  untold  misery,  even  starvation 
—  wholesale  starvation,  worse  than  this  country  has 
ever  known !  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?  " 

"  Nothing,"  quavered  Breed.  "  It  is  none  of  my 
affair." 

Pellman  would  have  liked  to  shake  him.  He 
looked  at  the  man  in  silence,  and  while  his  sharp 
nose  and  his  thin  lips  and  his  pointed  chin  were  out 
lined  crisply  against  the  window,  edged  with  a  line 
of  carmine  from  the  red  firelight,  a  queer  thought 
came  to  Pellman,  that  there  in  that  unlovely  sphere 
of  bone  lay  a  few  ounces  of  brain  that  had  built  up 
the  most  colossal  fortune  in  the  world;  that  held 
subject  to  its  whim  the  destinies,  not  only  of  the 
ten  million  human  beings  directly  or  indirectly  em 
ployed  by  him,  but  now,  in  this  extremity,  the  des 
tinies  of  ninety  millions  of  people!  Pellman  was 
far-seeing.  If  this  calamity  could  not  be  nipped 
in  the  bud  it  was  likely  to  be  felt  all  over  the  world. 


'58  .THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

And  one  man  could  do  it,  could,  this  very  day,  make 
or  mar  fortunes,  promote  or  destroy  commerce,  pro 
long  or  end  lives.  And  one  man  could  do  it !  It  was 
too  much  power.  Wherein  did  the  gray  matter 
in  Henry  Breed's  head  differ  from  that  of  all  other 
men?  Where  was  the  secret  of  his  tremendous 
force,  his  tremendous  capacity  to  achieve?  Pell- 
man  was  startled  out  of  this  idle  speculation  by  a 
senile  chuckle.  Henry  Breed,  looking  into  the  fire, 
was  laughing  in  a  high-pitched  falsetto,  and  nod 
ding  his  glistening  old  head. 

"  Breed !  "  commanded  Pellman  sharply. 

The  owner  of  countless  millions  looked  around 
at  him  almost  vacantly,  but  before  he  could  reply, 
had  he  been  minded  to  do  so,  a  tall,  gaunt  man  with 
protruding  cheek-bones  and  bristling  red  hair  and 
a  drooping,  sandy  mustache  came  in  with  a  slip  of 
yellow  paper  in  his  hand.  He  glanced  at  Pellman 
inquiringly,  and  a  gleam  of  recognition  flashed  upon 
his  countenance,  although  Pellman  could  have 
sworn  that  he  had  never  seen  the  man  before.  He 
caught  the  man's  eye,  and  its  blaze,  somehow,  gave 
him  an  uneasy  feeling.  He  noted  that  the  man's 
skin  was  like  leather;  that  his  neck,  though  small, 
had  great  cords  upon  it  that  swelled  and  thickened 
as  they  spread  toward  his  torso;  that  his  shoulders 
were  broad,  and  that  his  great  knotted  hands  told 
of  tremendous  power.  For  only  an  instant  the 


RICHEST  MAN  IN  THE  WORLD      59 

man's  gaze  swept  Pellman,  then  he  advanced  to 
Breed. 

"  A  wireless  for  you,  sir,"  said  he,  in  a  voice  of 
so  deep  a  range  that  it  seemed  to  jar  all  the  air  in 
the  room  and  set  it  quivering. 

Breed  glanced  at  the  message,  almost  indifferently, 
and  handed  it  back.  "  Tell  him  that  there  is  to  be 
no  compromise  with  that  firm,  Blagg,"  he  directed, 
dropping  his  indifference  suddenly,  then  relapsing 
into  it  again;  and  he  cast  a  crafty  glance  toward 
Pellman. 

The  wireless  operator  smiled  grimly  and  turned 
away.  As  he  started  out  the  door  the  young  wom 
an  Pellman  had  seen  in  the  hall  came  in,  accom 
panied  by  an  elder  woman.  Pellman  saw  Blagg's 
eyes  flame  again  as  they  rested  on  the  girl,  and 
the  man  turned  to  look  after  her  to  the  last  as  he 
closed  the  door. 

The  elder  woman  was  rather  stout,  with  her 
head  thrown  back  in  a  general  attitude  of  con 
tempt,  her  cheeks  flabby,  but  carefully  made  up  with 
rouge  and  powder,  her  eyes  wrinkled,  and  her  re 
trousse  nose  uptilted,  even  to  a  greater  degree  than 
her  chin.  Pellman  remembered  her  vaguely  as  a 
Mrs.  Rensselaer,  one  of  the  long-since  impoverished 
exclusives  of  old  Manhattan,  but  still  a  power  in  the 
inner  circles,  and  he  idly  wondered  what  she  could 
be  doing  here.  Mrs.  Rensselaer,  however,  had  no 


60  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

curiosity  about  Pellman,  or  about  any  of  them,  for 
that  matter,  casting  upon  them  all  a  glance  of  un- 
discriminating  disdain,  and,  going  to  one  of  the 
bookcases,  she  sought  out  a  volume  and  took  it  away 
\vith  her.  But  the  girl  came  and  stood  behind 
Breed's  chair,  her  hand  resting  lightly  upon  his 
shoulder,  and  stared  at  Pellman  with  frank  imperti 
nence.  Her  attitude  angered  him. 

"  Breed !  "  he  again  commanded  sharply. 

"Well?"  asked  Breed  apathetically. 

"  You  must  listen  to  me,"  insisted  Pellman. 
"  Half  a  dozen  times,  under  emergency,  you  have 
come  to  the  front  and  helped  to  smooth  things  out ; 
once  you  even  saved  the  government.  Now  we 
have  a  worse  condition  than  any  that  has  ever  con 
fronted  us.  The  whole  country  is  going  to  hell. 
The  Stock  Exchange  will  be  swept  out  of  existence 
before  the  week's  end.  There  will  be  more  bank 
failures  than  have  ever  occurred  in  the  United 
States  in  any  one  year.  I  know  how  these  things 
start,  and  you  know.  Breed,  you  must  do  some 
thing.  I  am  not  going  away  from  here  until  you 
do.  Call  off  your  absurd  cash  drain,  announce  it  to 
the  public,  and  go  with  us  to  bolster  up  the  market." 

Breed  looked  around  him  slowly,  and  his  eye 
caught  that  of  Doctor  Zelphan.  "  Take  me  away," 
said  he.  "I  am  tired.  Lillian!" 

Zelphan  stepped  immediately  to  his  side,  took  his 


RICHEST  MAN  IN  THE  WORLD      61 

arm,  and  started  toward  the  door  on  the  other  side 
of  the  fireplace,  the  girl  supporting  his  other  arm. 

"  Wait !  "  almost  shrieked  Pellman.  "  You  are 
not  so  ill  that  you  can  not  talk  this  matter  over. 
You  were  well  enough  just  now  to  put  the  screws 
on  some  concern  unlucky  enough  to  be  under  your 
thumb !  Listen  to  me !  " 

Breed  only  hastened  his  shuffling  footsteps. 
Pellman  strode  after  them,  but  just  as  they  reached 
the  door  Doctor  Zelphan  opened  it,  and  the  girl 
cast  back  at  Pellman  a  glance  of  derision  from  her 
dark  eyes.  She  took  Breed  into  the  room  beyond, 
and  as  the  door  closed  behind  her  she  laughed  an  in 
solent  laugh  of  amusement. 

Zelphan  stood  before  the  door  with  his  feet  apart. 
"  I  told  you  just  how  it  would  be,"  he  declared. 
"  The  man  is  in  no  condition  to  talk  business,  and 
must  not  be  bothered  again." 

Pellman  left  the  house,  fuming,  and  his  ill  humor 
was  in  no  degree  lessened  when,  just  beyond  the 
gates,  his  hired  car  suffered  a  flat  tire.  The  chauf 
feur,  rather  a  bungler,  was  full  thirty  minutes  in 
repairing  it,  and  as  they  finally  whirred  past  the 
first  point  where  the  valley  allowed  a  glimpse 
beyond  the  wall,  Pellman  swore  viciously  as  he  saw 
two  figures  crossing  the  glade  armed  with  golf- 
sticks.  They  were  some  distance  away,  but  he  was 
sure  they  were  the  doctor  and  Henry  Breed ! 


CHAPTER  VI 

MR.  PELLMAN  DISCOVERS  THE  SOURCE  OF 
PHILLIP  KELVIN'S  CASH 

OVERNIGHT,  merely  from  the  impetus  of 
their  descent,  stocks  went  down  not  less 
than  fifteen  points.  Every  newspaper  in 
the  United  States  fairly  dripped  with  sensational 
stories  based  upon  the  fact  that  there  was  no  money 
in  circulation.  The  announcement  only  intensified 
the  situation.  Currency  had  been  scarce,  but  there 
had  been  enough  to  conduct  needful  operations. 
Now  all  currency  crept  instantly  into  retirement. 
Banks  guarded  their  cash  reserves  with  a  life-and- 
death  desperation.  Men  who  had  been  about  to  pay 
small  bills  kept  the  money  in  their  pockets,  and  a 
universal  stagnation  set  in.  In  another  day  ar 
rangements  were  made  in  a  dozen  cities  to  issue 
clearing-house  certificates  which  were  to  take  the 
place  of  money.  They  were  resorting  instantly  to 
an  expedient  that  had  proved  of  immense  value  in 
half  a  dozen  different  crises.  In  the  meantime, 
pandemonium  had  foreclosed  its  long  overdue  mort 
gage  upon  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange.  Its  one 

62 


THE  SOURCE  OF  KELVIN'S  CASH     63 

musical  note  was  a  shrieking  roar,  that  rose  and  fell 
in  wailing  cadences,  and  each  crescendo  was  a  requi 
em  for  some  dying  firm  of  brokers.  Like  the  black 
plague,  each  corpse  caused  a  dozen  more. 

Pellman,  that  day,  sat  in  his  office  until  nearly 
eleven  o'clock,  receiving  by  telephone  the  reports 
of  the  slaughter.  Overnight  he  had  seen  personal 
disaster  staring  over  his  shoulder  and  had  made 
desperate  attempts  to  fortify  himself.  Suddenly, 
however,  he  found  that  he  had  no  friends  of  in 
fluence.  Two  days  before  he  could  have  secured 
almost  unlimited  backing ;  to-day  no  one  had  money, 
and  there  was  no  such  thing  in  existence  as  a  nego 
tiable  security.  Only  one  thing  could  help  him  — 
a  restoration  of  the  public  confidence  and  a  con 
sequent  immediate  recovery  in  the  price  of  stocks; 
and  this  only  one  thing  could  bring  about  —  an 
announcement  by  Breed  that  no  more  cash  would 
be  withdrawn  from  circulation,  and  that  some  of 
that  already  retired  would  be  put  back  into  the 
active  channels  of  trade.  Let  Breed  give  that  mere 
announcement  to  the  papers,  authoritatively,  and 
not  only  Pellman  but  the  whole  country  would  be 
saved.  He  hurried  over  to  the  New  Jersey  offices 
of  the  United  Food  Company,  first  telephoning 
to  make  sure  that  Ashburn,  the  general  man 
ager,  was  there.  He  found  Ashburn  in  his  private 
office,  watching  the  ticker  ribbon  with  much  inter- 


64  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

est,  but  before  they  had  even  exchanged  greetings 
he  himself  hurried  to  the  tape,  and  read  with  his 
own  eyes  the  appalling  record  of  the  devastation 
that  had  occurred  within  the  last  hour.  Pellman 
was  a  heavy  holder  of  Northern  Pacific,  and  as  his 
eyes  glanced  over  the  tape  it  ticked  off  the  latest 
quotation  on  that  stock  at  a  price  so  absurdly  low 
that  he  fairly  shrieked  at  Ashburn  across  the  white 
ribbon. 

"  You  people  are  responsible  for  this !  " 
"  Pretty  clever  work,"  commented  Ashburn, 
glancing  into  a  mirror  and  settling  his  lavender 
cravat.  He  was  apple-cheeked  and  wore  curled 
mustaches,  and  his  tendency  to  dandyism  had  al 
ways  annoyed  Pellman.  "  Three  months  ago  I  be 
gan  selling  short,  and  now  I  am  closing  up.  The 
market  is  bound  to  go  lower,  but  there  will  be  no 
chance  to  get  the  money  when  it  goes  there.  Look 
at  this !  " 

A  long  sentence  was  being  spelled  out  on  the  tape : 

Wilson  and  Woodruff  admit  bankruptcy. 

"  It  is  beginning  already,"  said  Ashburn  com 
placently.  He  looked  up  at  Pellman.  The  face  of 
the  latter  had  turned  suddenly  to  a  ghastly  greenish 
pallor.  "  What's  the  matter?  "  Ashburn  asked. 

"Wilson  and  Woodruff!"  gasped  Pellman. 
"  We  are  bound  up  with  them,  owing  to  some  recent 


THE  SOURCE  OF  KELVIN'S  CASH      65 

deals,  like  Siamese  twins."  Pellman's  hands  were 
nervously  groping  from  pocket  to  pocket.  His 
mouth  and  throat  were  working  queerly.  He 
seemed  incapable  of  speech.  Ashburn  understood, 
and  handed  him  a  cigar  and  lit  a  match  for  him. 
Pellman  took  a  puff  or  two,  and  steadied  himself 
with  a  heavy  effort  of  \vill-power. 

"  I  was  afraid  of  it,"  he  said  huskily,  then  sud 
denly  flared  out  again.  "  You  fellows  have  done 
this,  I  tell  you !  " 

"  No  doubt  we  precipitated  the  break  at  this  par 
ticular  moment,"  agreed  Ashburn ;  "  but  you  and 
your  kind  are  responsible  for  the  break  itself.  It 
was  bound  to  come,  for  Wall  Street  is  diseased. 
This  thing  will  turn  out  right,  Pellman.  In  the 
end  you  will  find  it  to  have  been  good  medicine  for 
business  at  large." 

"  To  hell  with  business  at  large !  "  exclaimed  the 
other,  grown  vicious  in  his  big  rage.  "  What  do  I 
care  for  business  at  large  if  I  go  bankrupt?  When 
are  you  going  to  stop  this  infernal  massacre?" 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Ashburn  calmly.  "  Orders 
do  not  come  directly  from  me.  They  merely  go 
through  me." 

"  They  come  from  Forest  Lakes,"  asserted  Pell 
man. 

Ashburn  only  smiled,  and  daintily  flecked  some 
cigarette-ashes  off  his  sleeve  with  a  handkerchief. 


66  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  You're  actually  gloating  over  it!  "  charged  Pell- 
man,  white  with  anger.  "  The  whole  thing  is  a 
carefully  made  panic,  by  which  Breed,  and  you  head 
bakers  of  his,  profit.  Well,  there  are  ways  to 
make  you  do  something,  and  I  intend  to  evoke 
them." 

Ashburn  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  Go  ahead  and 
evoke,"  he  invited.  "  In  the  meantime  I  would 
like  to  call  your  attention  to  the  beautiful  little  fact 
that  I  have  personally  cleaned  up  over  one  million 
dollars  in  the  past  week,  and  I  stand  to  make  an 
other  handsome  profit  if  all  you  manipulators  don't 
go  to  pieces  before  I  can  collect  it." 

Pellman  returned  again  and  again  to  the  attack, 
but  finally  was  compelled  to  give  up  in  despair.  As 
he  walked  away,  almost  blind  with  rage,  he  was  im 
peded  by  two  men  carrying  an  iron-bound  wooden 
packing-case,  and  his  eye  mechanically  noticed  that 
there  was  a  cut  in  the  edge  of  one  of  the  sheet-iron 
bands,  the  point  of  this  cut  turning  up  in  an  ugly 
fashion.  He  swore  as  he  caught  himself  taking 
note  of  such  a  trivial  detail  in  the  midst  of  his 
worry,  and  bent  himself  sternly  to  the  consideration 
of  his  own  tangled  affairs.  Like  many  another  of 
the  larger  operators,  he  had  done  considerable  trad 
ing  through  Henry  Galleon  and  Company  and  the 
other  four  conservatives  to  whom  Kelvin  had  en 
trusted  his  deals,  and  with  each  he  had  a  varying 


THE  SOURCE  OF  KELVIN'S  CASH      67 

balance.  He  called  up  Henry  Galleon  to  find  out 
the  status  of  his  affairs  there.  Mr.  Galleon  was 
very  cold  about  it. 

"  I  must  have  more  margin  at  once  to  protect 
your  purchases,"  he  declared.  "  Your  balance  with 
me  is  now  less  than  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  it 
will  be  wiped  out  in  an  hour  unless  you  send  me 
a  check." 

"  Who  is  my  principal  creditor?  "  asked  Pellman. 

"  Young  Kelvin.  He  has  been  buying  outright 
all  day  and  demanding  absolute  delivery  of  stock. 
I  think  it  is  his  intention  to  force  delivery  upon  all 
purchasers  to  whom  he  has  previously  sold." 

"  Where  is  he  to  be  found?  " 

"  In  his  apartments  at  the  Esplanade,"  replied 
Galleon.  "  He  has  a  ticker  in  his  rooms,  and  re 
mains  there  until  the  Stock  Exchange  closes." 

Pellman  hung  up  the  receiver,  and  hurried  over  to 
the  apartments  of  young  Kelvin.  He  found  Phil 
lip  seated  before  a  huge  sheet  of  figures,  checking 
off  certain  items  from  a  thick  pile  of  memorandum 
slips.  Seen  here,  he  suddenly  looked  ageless. 
Pellman  had  given  him  credit  only  for  youth  and 
consequent  inexperience.  He  moistened  his  lips  be 
fore  he  spoke. 

"  I  understand  you  sold  me  ten  thousand  shares 
of  N.  P.,"  he  said. 

Kelvin  consulted  a  card-index,  and  nodded  his 


68  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

head.  "  Yes,"  he  replied.  "  Through  Henry  Gal 
leon  and  Company." 

"If  you  force  delivery  on  that  stock,"  said  Pell- 
man,  "  I  can't  save  breakfast  money  out  of  my 
operations  in  Galleon's  office.  I  have  come  to  ask 
of  you  a  big  favor.  Let  me  close  that  deal  now; 
let  me  give  you  my  note  for  the  difference  between 
selling  price  and  present  market  price,  you  to  hold 
the  stock  as  security." 

Kelvin  listened,  and  then  quietly  took  from  his  in 
dex  case  a  separate  pack  of  memorandum  slips, 
bound  with  rubber  bands.  He  went  through  them 
carefully,  finally  pulling  out  one  slip.  He  studied 
this  a  moment  and  then  as  carefully  replaced  it  and 
put  the  bundle  in  his  drawer. 

"  Impossible,  Mr.  Pellman,"  he  announced. 
"  No  compromise  can  be  made  on  this  stock.  I 
have  just  purchased,  for  spot  cash,  ten  thousand 
shares  of  N.  P.  at  sixty-four.  You  purchased 
from  me  at  one  twenty-eight.  You  must  take  the 
stock  at  that  figure  and  you  can  sell  it  for  sixty- four, 
if  you  hurry.  Or  I  will  keep  the  stock,  and  you 
can  pay  me  the  difference  in  cash." 

"  I  can't  possibly  do  it,"  said  Pellman. 

"  I  can't  possibly  do  anything  else,"  replied  Phillip 
dryly,  and  no  amount  of  persuasion  would  cause  him 
to  recede  from  that  position. 

Pellman,  desperate  to  try  some  other  means  of 


THE  SOURCE  OF  KELVIN'S  CASH      69 

protecting  himself,  was  turning  away  when  two  men 
came  into  the  room  with  a  small  wooden  packing- 
case  bound  with  sheet-iron.  Pellman  might  not  have 
noticed  this  circumstance,  but  for  his  recognition  of 
the  men.  His  eye  for  smaller  detail  saw  a  cut  upon 
one  of  the  sheet-iron  bands,  and  an  ugly  upturned 
corner.  He  had  passed  out  of  the  room  before  the 
full  significance  of  this  sank  in  on  him,  and  then 
he  returned  angrily  to  Kelvin. 

"  Now  I  understand,"  he  said.  "  I  see  how  you 
came  to  be  called  the  '  Cash  Bear.'  That  box  is  full 
of  money  collected  by  Breed's  company  and  fur 
nished  to  you  to  conduct  this  campaign.  We  in  the 
financial  field  should  have  known  what  you  were. 
You  are  Breed's  puppet!  I  understand,  too,  why 
there  is  no  chance  to  compromise  with  you.  My 
name  is  on  the  list  of  men  that  Breed  has  sworn 
to  break,  and  he  has  done  it." 

Kelvin  looked  at  him  calmly.  "  I  can  not  prevent 
you  from  supposing  anything  you  like,  Mr.  Pellman, 
but  I  would  like  to  impress  upon  you  the  fact  that  I 
am  very  busy." 

"  Dangling  and  dancing  upon  the  strings  that 
Breed  pulls !  "  declared  Pellman  with  hot  contempt. 

Kelvin  smiled  aggravatingly.  "  It  seems  to  me 
that  you  too  are  dangling  and  dancing  upon  the 
strings  that  Mr.  Breed  pulls,"  he  charged  with  cool 
insolence.  "  But  you  might  as  well  calm  down,  for 


70  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

since  you  have  been  talking  to  me  your  firm  has  been 
announced  as  bankrupt." 

"  It's  a  lie !  "  declared  Pellman,  though  he  knew 
in  his  heart  that  it  was  true. 

Kelvin  pointed  to  the  tape,  where  the  ticker  had 
just  finished  announcing  the  suspension  of  Pell 
man  and  Company.  "  It  seems  to  be  true,"  said 
Phillip.  "  Moreover,  I  don't  mind  confessing  to 
you  that  we  did  it  —  that,  in  fact,  Mr.  Breed  in 
tended  to  do  it ;  and  I  showed  him  how." 

"  You  damned  — !  "  shrieked  Pellman,  white 
with  fury,  and  advancing  a  threatening  step.  A 
quick,  warning  signal  from  Phillip  made  him  turn 
hastily.  In  the  doorway  crouched  a  figure  that 
would  have  startled  a  man  with  even  stronger 
nerves  than  Pellman's.  The  crouching  figure  was 
that  of  big  black  Sam,  his  long,  gorilla-like  arms 
close  to  the  floor,  the  huge  muscles  of  his  legs  tense, 
his  marble-like  eyes  rolling,  his  lips  drawn  back  over 
his  teeth  in  a  jackal  snarl  —  and  he  was  creeping 
slowly  forward  toward  Pellman. 

"You'd  better  leave,  Pellman,"  said  Phillip. 
"  You're  the  man  that  broke  my  father." 


CHAPTER  VII 

PHILLIP   MAKES  A   CASH   LOAN   TO   ELSIE   WHITE 
BUT   STOPS   THERE. 

THE  grim  joke  of  it  was  that  Wall  Street  was 
being  rent  by  its  own  Frankenstein.  Wall 
Street  was  quite  used  to  panics,  in  fact  it 
had  been  in  the  business  of  making  them,  but  here 
was  one  that  had  been  made  entirely  outside  of  its 
calculation,  and  it  did  not  know  what  to  do  with 
the  creature.  The  ghastly  feature  of  this  panic  was 
that  the  cause  of  it  was  going  steadily  on.  Every 
day,  in  every  city  and  village  throughout  the  land 
where  Breed  had  established  his  thousands  of  bread- 
depots,  was  still  that  steady  drain  which  had,  in  the 
first  place,  caused  the  disruption  of  the  financial  sys 
tem.  Each  depot  was  a  rivulet  of  nickels  and  dimes 
which,  uniting  in  a  broad  river  of  dollars,  flooded 
the  entire  currency  of  the  country  to  the  feet  of 
Henry  Breed.  And  that  river  could  not  be 
dammed.  Breed,  as  a  retail  merchant,  had  a  per 
fectly  legal  right  to  demand  cash  for  his  commodi 
ties,  and  he  could  not  be  stopped  from  collecting  it. 
On  the  day  that  Pellman  went  under  there  were 


72  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

half  a  dozen  other  failures,  and  this  was  but  the 
beginning  of  terror-filled  days,  each  with  a  more 
and  more  dismal  history.  Throughout  the  country 
banks  were  breaking,  and  business  houses  were 
going  down  with  them.  Factories  were  suspend 
ing,  and  chaos  reigned  everywhere.  Every  failure 
made  a  dozen  more,  and  from  coast  to  coast  there 
swept  with  incredible  swiftness  a  tidal  wave  of 
bankruptcy.  It  was  a  hideous  object-lesson  in  busi 
ness  methods.  The  entire  boasted  "  prosperity " 
of  the  country  had  been  built  upon  nothing  more 
substantial  than  universal  credit,  which  was,  in 
closer  definition,  but  universal  confidence.  This  de 
stroyed,  by  a  breath  credit  was  destroyed;  and  a 
whole  nation  of  people  was  forced  into  immediate 
idleness  and  want  because  its  machinery  for  ex 
changing  the  product  of  its  labor  for  the  product 
of  other  labor  had  developed  a  broken  cog. 

And,  as  usual,  it  was  the  poor  that  suffered  quick 
est  and  most.  Phillip,  on  a  day  especially  prolific 
of  new  champagne-fed  paupers,  was  surprised  to  re 
ceive  a  visit  from  Elsie  White.  She  was  pale  and 
nervous;  much  worry  had  caused  her  to  lose  sleep, 
and  as  she  stood  before  Phillip,  her  hands  clasped 
tightly  together,  young  Rensselaer,  who  happened 
to  be  in  Phillip's  apartments  at  the  time,  was  sur 
prised  to  find  how  keenly  he  pitied  her.  He  hurried 
to  place  her  a  chair,  but  she  paid  no  attention  to  him 


A  CASH  LOAN  73 

more  than  to  acknowledge  his  courtesy,  and  Rens- 
selaer,  seeing  her  big  eyes  with  the  dark  rings  under 
them  fixed  appealingly  upon  Phillip,  mumbled  an 
apology  and  went  back  to  Sam,  whom  he  always 
found  amusing. 

"  I  have  come  to  tell  you  my  troubles  as  I  have 
always  done,"  said  Elsie  with  a  smile  that  was  wan 
in  spite  of  all  her  effort  to  make  it  cheerful. 

"  Let's  hear  all  about  it,"  invited  Phillip  cordially. 
"  I  don't  think  my  little  sister  ever  came  to  me,  in 
the  old  days,  that  I  didn't  help  her  out  of  her  dif 
ficulties,  if  possible." 

"  Indeed,  no,"  she  said  gratefully.  "  You  were 
the  finest  sort  of  big  brother." 

She  lingered  a  trifle  upon  that  word,  uncon 
sciously  emphasizing  it  ever  so  slightly;  and  Rens- 
selaer,  had  he  been  there,  would  have  noted  in  it, 
perhaps,  a  trace  of  regretful  abnegation.  Phillip 
outwardly  accepted  the  wrord  as  a  pleasant  expres 
sion  of  confidence.  Inwardly,  he  winced  at  it. 
The  impulse  came  upon  him  to  repudiate  it,  but  an 
other  and  a  greater  passion  held  him  back  —  the 
passion  of  an  all-sweeping  ambition. 

"  Who  has  broken  your  doll  this  time?  "  he  asked 
with  a  smile. 

She  shook  her  head.  "  It  is  worse  than  a  broken 
doll,"  she  said.  "  When  you  were  in  Hampton  you 
spoke  about  securing  employment  for  father." 


74  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Phillip  turned  grave.  "  I  have  thought  about  it 
a  great  many  times,"  he  replied;  "  but  outside  of  his 
trade  he  has  so  little  adaptability  that  I  could  not 
think  of  a  place  for  him." 

Again  Elsie  clasped  her  hands  and  plunged  he 
roically  into  her  errand. 

"  He  must  be  put  in  a  position  to  earn  some 
money.  We  are  really  in  a  desperate  condition, 
Phillip.  You  know,  without  being  told,  how  we 
have  always  lived  from  hand  to  mouth."  Even 
then,  in  her  loyalty,  she  said  "  we."  "  For  some 
time  things  have  been  going  from  bad  to  worse. 
Yesterday  we  received  notice  that  we  must  give  up 
our  home,  and  we  must  move  out  by  Saturday. 
We  shall  lose  our  furniture  at  the  same  time.  Until 
recently  we  had  credit  at  the  butcher's  and  the 
grocer's,  but  that  has  been  cut  off.  Grace's  husband 
is  wandering  about,  somewhere  out  West,  penniless 
and  hunting  for  work,  and  Grace  and  her  two  little 
children  have  come  home  to  us,  just  at  a  time  when 
we  can  do  nothing  for  them ;  yet  they  are  ours,  and 
we  must  take  care  of  them.  Grace  is  not  strong; 
of  the  seven  of  us  in  the  house,  only  father  and  I 
are  physically  able  to  earn  a  living.  I  have  been  in 
the  city  every  day  for  the  past  week,  hunting  for 
employment,  and  father  has  made  more  persistent 
efforts  than  I  have  ever  known  him  to  make,  except 
in  his  hobby  of  gardening;  but  we  have  not  found 


A  CASH  LOAN  75 

anything.  The  time  has  come  when  we  must  find 
it." 

She  did  not  tell  him  of  their  actual  hunger,  of 
their  almost  actual  starvation,  but  Phillip,  looking  at 
her  drawn  face  and  knowing  her  old-time  pride, 
which  she  had  humbled  so  simply  and  unaffectedly 
before  him,  could  guess,  and  was  shocked.  He 
longed  to  take  her  in  his  arms  and  comfort  her,  but 
he  did  not. 

"  Really,  Elsie,  I  didn't  know,  I  couldn't  believe, 
that  the  case  was  so  desperate,"  he  said  with  con 
trition.  "  First  of  all,  you  must  let  me  make  your 
father  a  loan  sufficient  to  cover  all  needs;  the  pay 
ments  on  the  house  and  furniture,  the  little  out 
standing  bills,  enough  to  cure  Ed  and  to  run  on. 
No  one  outside  of  the  family  has  a  better  right  than 
I  to  do  this,  and  no  one  would  be  so  glad." 

"  I  know,"  she  returned.  "  You  are  very  delicate, 
too,  to  offer  to  make  the  loan  to  father,  but  I'd 
rather  you  would  lend  it  to  me,  for  I  have  deter 
mined  to  become  the  business  man  of  the  family." 

For  the  first  time  her  face  colored.  She  felt 
that  even  in  this  there  was  a  hint  of  disloyalty  to  her 
father,  but  it  could  not  be  avoided. 

"  Just  as  you  like,"  agreed  Phillip.  "  How  much 
shall  you  need  ?  " 

She  handed  him  a  little  slip  of  paper  upon  which 
the  amounts  were  already  set  down  and  totaled. 


76  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

The  sum  was  pitifully  small  in  view  of  all  the  vast 
sums  which  Phillip  had  at  his  disposal. 

"  I  don't  think  it  wise  for  you  to  confine  this  to 
actual  necessities,"  he  urged.  "  It  would  be  much 
better  to  take  a  larger  sum;  one  that  would  cover 
all  emergencies." 

Elsie  shook  her  head  firmly.  "  No,"  she  said. 
"  I  have  already  allowed  a  small  leeway.  The  less 
I  can  make  the  burden  the  better  I  shall  feel  about 
it,  for  it  must  all  be  paid  back.  Please  let  me  have 
my  own  way." 

"  I  -'-••-''-  see  how  I  can  do  otherwise,"  replied 
Phillip,  giving  her  the  money.  She  took  it,  gulping 
down  a  little  lump  which  rose  in  her  throat  and 
suppressing  the  tears  that  lay  on  her  lashes;  then 
said,  with  a  pretty  little  assumption  of  business : 

"  I  want  you  to  write  out  a  note  for  me  to  sign." 

Without  protest  Phillip  did  so,  and  put  the  note 
carefully  away. 

"  Now  we  come  back  to  the  question  of  employ 
ment,"  said  he.  "  You  mentioned  a  while  ago  your 
father's  gardening  hobby,  and  I  know  from  expe 
rience  what  excellent  work  he  can  do.  Do  you  sup 
pose  he  would  take  a  position  in  that  line?  " 

"  A  month  ago  he  would  not,  but  now  he  would, 
gratefully.  If  you  can  get  him  such  a  place  it 
would  perhaps  solve  our  problem." 

"  I  believe  that  I  can,"   mused  Phillip.     "  Just 


A  CASH  LOAN  77 

wait  a  minute,"  and  he  wrote  a  note,  enclosing  it 
in  an  addressed  envelope  which  he  handed  to  her. 
"If  your  father  will  take  this  note  to  the  address 
on  the  envelope,  I  am  quite  certain  they  will  make 
a  place  for  him." 

She  put  the  note  in  her  hand-bag,  and  rose, 
extending  her  hand.  "  I  don't  know  how  to  thank 
you,"  she  said.  "  You  will  have  to  take  it  for 
granted." 

He  took  her  warm  hand  in  his  own,  and  if  in  that 
moment  he  had  obeyed  the  impulse  that  was  in  his 
heart,  that  drew  him  to  her  almost  irresistibly,  that 
cried  out  to  him  with  a  clamor  that  could  scarcely 
be  stilled,  if  he  had  spoken  the  words  that  strove  to 
rush  upon  his  lips,  the  whole  course  of  his  life 
might  have  been  changed  —  for  the  better.  But 
again  ambition,  which  grimly  forbade  any  clog  upon 
his  movements,  interfered,  and  he  held  her  hand 
with  the  tenderness  of  a  brother;  no  more ! 

"  Really,  Elsie,  I  wish  I  could  have  done  more 
for  you,"  he  said.  "  I  want  you  to  promise  me  that 
if  you  get  into  difficulties  of  any  sort  you  will  let  me 
smooth  them  out  for  you." 

"  I  have  no  one  else  to  go  to,"  she  replied  simply. 
She  stood  for  a  moment  in  a  hesitation  that  he  could 
not  understand.  There  was  something  else  on 
her  mind,  something  that  she  could  scarcely  bring 
herself  to  speak  about.  "  Do  you  know  how  much 


78  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

suffering  there  is  in  the  world?  "  she  suddenly  asked 
him. 

"  I  suppose  there  is  a  great  deal  of  it." 
"  Do  you  understand  what  suffering  is  ?  " 
His  face  darkened.  "  I  do,"  he  returned.  "  I 
had  my  share  of  it  —  of  illness,  of  poverty,  of  cold 
and  hunger,  of  uncleanliness,  of  the  social  degrada 
tion  that  belongs  with  want  of  money.  I  know 
these  things,  not  as  one  emerging  from  them,  but  as 
one  cast  down  among  them  from  luxury.  Some 
people,  that  experience  softens,  others  it  hardens  and 
makes  bitter.  Sometimes  I  think  it  had  that  latter 
effect  with  me." 

"  It  must  not  be !  "  she  said  earnestly.  "  Phillip, 
you  may  know  what  such  things  are  in  your 
individual  self,  but  I  don't  think  you  under 
stand  how  widely  spread  they  are  to-day.  What 
has  happened  to  my  family  has  happened 
to  three-fourths  of  the  people  in  Hampton,  which, 
as  you  may  or  may  not  know,  is  composed  entirely 
of  poor  people,  workmen  who,  in  better  times,  try 
to  buy  their  own  homes.  In  that  village  of  four  or 
five  thousand  people  there  are  perhaps  one-half  of 
them  facing  actual  starvation  at  this  minute." 
"  Yes?  "  inquired  Phillip,  waiting. 
"  There  are  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  other  vil 
lages  just  like  Hampton,  where  thousands  upon 


A  CASH  LOAN  79 

thousands  are  in  the  same  condition.  Things  were 
never  so  bad  as  they  are  now." 

"  Yes  ?  "  he  asked  again. 

"They  say  —  they  say" — she  halted  and 
stopped,  and  then,  with  her  face  coloring,  she  stum 
bled  on  — "  they  say  that  you  have  had  a  great  deal 
to  do  with  it.  They  are  saying  it  everywhere  — • 
that  you  brought  on  this  panic,  and  that  you  could 
stop  it.  It  isn't  true,  is  it?  " 

"  In  a  measure  I  suppose  it  is,"  admitted  Phillip. 
"  The  condition  was  like  a  pile  of  loose  gunpowder 
at  the  side  of  a  railroad  track,  where  constantly 
passing  engines  are  sending  up  sparks.  One  sparkj 
was  sure  to  land  in  that  gunpowder  and  explode  it. 
I  merely  happened  to  be  the  spark,  but  with  no  more 
power  than  that  spark  to  stop  the  subsequent  de 
struction." 

She  recoiled  from  him  with  dilating  eyes.  "  It 
is  true,  then !  "  she  said. 

"  I  suppose  it  is,  even  in  the  way  you  look  at  it ; 
but  I  assure  you,  Elsie,  that  it  was  necessary.  Out 
of  this,  better  times  will  result,  and  better  times 
could  not  be  reached  except  through  this  devasta 
tion.  It  is  like  tearing  down  a  tottering  house,  lest 
it  should  fall  upon  you,  but  only  tearing  down  to 
rebuild  better  and  stronger.  It  is  like  a  surgical 
operation,  which,  painful  and  cruel  as  it  may  seem 


8o 

at  the  start,  is  necessary  to  save  the  rest  of  the 
body  from  death  and  decay." 

She  shook  her  head.  "  I  can  not  understand  it ; 
but  then,  I  suppose  I  could  never  have  been  a  sur 
geon." 

He  smiled  and  laid  his  hand  upon  her  shoulder. 
"  No,  I  don't  think  you  could." 

She  winced  under  that  touch  and  glance,  not  be 
cause  they  were  repulsive  to  her  —  oh,  not  because 
of  that!  —  but  because  they  were  the  touch  and 
glance  of  a  brother. 

Rollins  was  announced  just  then,  and  the  inter 
view  closed.  Rollins,  as  he  came  in,  met  Elsie  face 
to  face,  and  for  just  one  fleeting  moment  he  saw 
into  the  pure  depths  of  her  eyes.  He  turned  invol 
untarily  to  look  after  her  as  she  went  out  of  the 
door,  and  for  some  minutes  afterward  he  was 
abstracted  in  his  talk  with  Kelvin. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LILLIAN     BREED    AND     HER    GRANDFATHER    DISPLAY 
THE  BILLION  DOLLAR  VAULT  TO  PHILLIP 

IN  Phillip's  touring-car,  big  Sam  up  beside  the 
chauffeur,  Kelvin  and  Rensselaer  bowled  along 
a  pleasant  country  road,  with  the  latter  young 
gentleman  in  a  state  of  stupefaction. 

"  To  Forest  Lakes !  "  Rensselaer  exclaimed  for  at 
least  the  twentieth  time.  "  Why,  you  old  fox ! 
With  us  together  as  often  as  we  have  been  in  the 
past  month,  and  me  talking  of  Breed,  of  my  aunt, 
and  of  the  fair  Lillian,  you  never  said  a  word  about 
ever  having  known  Henry  Breed  or  of  ever  having 
been  to  Forest  Lakes !  " 

"I  didn't  dare,"  answered  Phillip.  "I  didn't 
want  my  panic  to  come  on  too  soon,  which  it  would 
have  done  had  my  connection  with  Breed  been 
known." 

"  But  you  might  have  told  me,"  protested  Rens 
selaer,  whereat  Phillip  merely  laughed  and  shrugged 
his  shoulders. 

"  You're  right,"  admitted  Rensselaer,  reddening. 
"If  you  could  not  be  tempted  to  tell  anybody,  that 

81 


82  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

person  could  not  be  tempted  to  tell  anybody  else ;  but 
now  that  it  is  all  over,  how  did  you  happen  to  fall 
in  with  the  old  boy  ?  " 

"  Hunted  him  up!  "  said  Phillip  with  sudden  fire. 
"  As  you  know,  this  same  crowd,  of  whom  Pellman 
was  at  that  time  the  head,  led  my  father  into  a  care 
fully  prepared  stock  deal.  It  was  as  deliberate  a 
plucking  as  any  greenhorn  ever  got  at  the  hands  of 
a  lot  of  confidence  men,  and  it  not  only  broke  his 
purse,  but  it  broke  his  heart.  It  left  him  without 
ambition,  and  when  he  died  he  left  me  absolutely 
penniless.  Even  as  a  boy  I  planned  to  get  even, 
but  I  knew  I  must  wait.  Down  South  the  chance 
came.  I  made  that  oil-strike,  then  luck  poured  in 
on  me,  and  I  began  at  last  to  make  a  lot  of  money. 
One  day,  about  a  year  ago,  I  read  in  a  paper  of 
Breed's  anger  against  this  same  Wall  Street  coterie. 
I  had  formed  some  good  acquaintances  down  there, 
and  among  them  was  a  man  who  knew  Breed  per 
sonally.  He  gave  me  a  letter  of  introduction.  I 
then  went  to  see  Breed  and  proposed  this  plan.  He 
returned  an  evasive  answer,  and  I  went  back  South. 
Shortly  after  I  returned  there,  however,  I  discov 
ered  that  Breed  had  put  into  operation  the  system 
by  which  I  suggested  he  drain  the  country  of  its 
currency.  I  discovered,  too,  that  there  were  spies 
watching  me,  and  delving  into  my  entire  past  his 
tory.  I  said  nothing,  but  I  made  up  my  mind  then 


THE  BILLION  DOLLAR  VAULT       83 

that  my  time  had  come.  Sure  enough,  Breed  finally 
sent  for  me.  He  had  employed  over  fifty  men  for 
nearly  a  year  to  examine  every  instant  of  my  career, 
and  he  was  satisfied.  I  spent  a  week  at  Forest 
Lakes  evolving  the  plan  in  detail,  and  —  you  know 
the  rest." 

"It's  a  wonderful  thing!"  declared  Rensselaer 
with  a  long  breath.  "  It's  a  romance !  " 

"  There  is  more  romance  in  modern  business  life 
than  there  was  in  the  days  of  lance  and  shield," 
declared  Phillip,  smiling. 

They  had  now  reached  the  stone  wall  that  sur 
rounded  Forest  Lakes,  and  both  were  silent  as  the 
waving  trees  within  brought  to  their  minds  the  mas 
ter  of  not  only  this  vast  estate,  but  of  the  modern 
commercial  world.  At  the  gate  they  were  admitted 
unchallenged,  though  a  score  of  bronzed  men  with 
guns  crossed  their  path  between  the  lodge  and  the 
house.  At  the  door  old  Wilkins  met  Phillip,  but  he 
was  no  more  than  within,  when  there  was  a  rustle 
of  silk  in  the  hall,  and  Lillian  came  eagerly  forward 
to  meet  him. 

"  I  understand,"  she  said  warmly,  "  that  you  are 
the  conquering  hero." 

"  I  have  done  what  I  was  told  to  do." 

"  But  you  have  done  it  well.  Now  it  is  time  that 
you  came  home  to  get  your  reward." 

"  I  have  been  fairly  well  rewarded  as  it  is,"  he 


84  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

replied.  "  By  the  way,  I  have  brought  with  me  an 
old  friend  of  yours." 

She  turned  and  almost  frowned  as  they  were 
joined  by  young  Rensselaer,  who  had  stopped  a 
moment  to  get  something  from  the  car,  but  that 
fleeting  trace  of  annoyance  having  passed  she  was 
most  cordial  to  him. 

"  We  are  glad  to  see  you  again,  Mr.  Rensselaer," 
she  said.  "  Mrs.  Rensselaer  has  been  expecting  you 
for  several  days,  and,  like  a  dutiful  nephew,  you 
must  pay  your  respects  to  her  at  once.  You  will 
find  her  in  her  own  apartments." 

"  I  don't  know  if  I  like  being  dismissed  so  sum 
marily,"  laughed  Rensselaer;  "  but  to  show  you  my 
ability  to  take  a  hint  I'll  go." 

"  That's  all  right,"  she  laughed  at  him ;  "  you 
may  be  miffy  if  you  want." 

"  I'll  see  you  later,  Bert,"  Kelvin  called  after  him 
as  he  went  up  the  stairs.  Then  to  Lillian,  "  Where 
is  Mr.  Breed?" 

"  He  is  just  trying  to  make  the  eighth  hole  out 
back  of  the  stables,  and  I  think  he  must  be  at  about 
the  hundredth  stroke  for  it,"  she  laughed.  "  I  will 
go  out  and  bring  him  while  you  remove  the  dust. 
Go  right  up  to  your  old  rooms ;  they  have  been  wait 
ing  for  you  ever  since  you  were  here  the  other  time. 
They  were  becoming  very  lonesome  for  you." 

Sam  passed  them  in  the  hall  with  the  luggage. 


THE  BILLION  DOLLAR  VAULT      85 

"  When  you  get  the  luggage  into  Mr.  Kelvin's 
room,  Sam,"  directed  Lillian,  "  you  will  find  Lucy 
waiting  for  you  in  the  kitchen."  There  followed 
that  gleeful  falsetto  laugh  which  set  them  both 
laughing  in  sympathy,  then  Lillian  hurried  away. 

Phillip  turned  into  his  apartments  with  a  feeling 
of  relief.  He  was  very  glad  to  rest  for  a  while 
from  the  turmoil  of  the  financial  crowd;  to  leave  all 
the  nervous  tension  of  that  tremendous  tragedy  be 
hind  him.  Sam  opened  the  luggage  and  put  it  away 
in  drawers  and  shelves  and  upon  hangers,  and  had 
just  gone  down  the  back  stairs  when  there  came  a 
timid  knock  at  the  door.  Phillip  opened  it  to  a 
maid  who  had  come  with  towels,  and  stepped  back 
in  surprise. 

"Elsie!"  he  cried. 

"Why,  Phillip!"  exclaimed  Elsie.  "I  didn't 
know  you  were  to  be  here." 

"  Nor  I  you,"  said  he.  "  How  does  it  come 
about?" 

"  That  letter  you  gave  to  father,"  she  explained. 
"  I  came  with  him,  applied  for  a  place  as  maid,  and 
got  it.  Father  is  head  gardener,  thanks  to  you,  and 
is  perfectly  happy.  We  are  both  doing  very  nicely. 
Did  Miss  Lillian  know  that  it  was  you  who  were  to 
occupy  these  rooms  ?  " 

"  Why,  certainly,"  replied  Phillip.  "  I  was  here 
before." 


86  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Elsie  said  nothing,  but  she  wondered.  Lillian 
had  seen  Phillip's  letter  to  her  grandfather;  in  fact, 
Elsie  had  used  it,  after  it  had  served  its  purpose  for 
her  father,  as  an  introduction  for  herself,  and  she 
felt  sure  that  it  had  secured  her  the  place.  More 
over,  Lillian  had  casually  asked  about  Phillip,  and 
Elsie  had  told,  in  glowing  terms,  how  good  he  was ; 
yet  Lillian  had  never  mentioned  that  she  knew  him, 
and  even  now,  when  she  told  Elsie  to  bring  the  tow 
els  to  this  room,  she  did  not  mention  Phillip's  name. 
Elsie  stopped  and  blushed  as  she  became  aware  that 
Phillip  was  pursuing  the  same  wondering  course  of 
thought. 

"  Does  she  treat  you  nicely  ?  "  Phillip  suddenly 
demanded. 

"  Oh,  yes,  very  nicely,  indeed,"  she  replied,  and 
Phillip  knew  that  she  was  not  telling  him  all  the 
truth.  He  paused,  embarrassed,  upon  his  realiza 
tion  of  this,  and  Elsie,  suddenly  remembering  the 
towels  upon  her  arm,  went  on  into  the  bath-room 
and  hung  them  up.  As  she  came  out  again  Phillip 
stopped  her  and  asked  about  the  rest  of  the  family. 

"  We  are  all  getting  on  nicely  now,"  she  said. 
"  Grace  has  brought  her  children  to  live  with  us, 
and  with  what  father  and  I  earn  we  can  do  splen 
didly;  we  can  even  save  a  little  money." 

"  I  am  glad  of  that,"  he  said  and  stopped,  not 
knowing  what  else  to  say. 


THE  BILLION  DOLLAR  VAULT       87 

It  was  while  they  were  standing,  still  somewhat 
confused,  that  Lillian  appeared  in  the  doorway  and 
cast  a  sharp  glance  at  them  both. 

"  You  have  not  mended  that  pink  frock  of  mine, 
Elsie,"  said  Lillian  in  honeyed  tones.  "  Really,  my 
dear,  I  had  hoped  to  find  it  done.  I  would  like  to 
wear  it  this  afternoon.  Better  see  to  it  right  away." 

Elsie  nodded  and  hurriedly  left  the  room. 

"  I  am  afraid  you  are  a  sad  flirt,"  charged  Lillian, 
shaking  her  finger  at  Phillip.  "  Already  you  are 
embarrassing  that  pretty  little  maid  whom  you  were 
accidentally  kind  enough  to  send  to  me." 

"  Has  Mr.  Breed  come  in  ?  "  asked  Phillip,  delib 
erately  ignoring  her  accusation. 

"  Now  I  know  there  is  something  in  all  this  flirta 
tion,"  she  laughed,  though  still  somewhat  piqued. 
"  Yes,  Mr.  Breed  has  come  in,  and  he  is  waiting  for 
you  in  the  library ;  "  and  with  a  coyness  that  he 
would  not  see  she  led  him  down-stairs  to  where 
Henry  Breed,  his  gaunt  and  ungainly  form  clad  in 
outing-flannels,  received  him  with  extreme  cordial 
ity. 

"  Well  done,  my  boy,  well  done ! "  said  he,  shak 
ing  hands  with  Phillip.  "  Come  back  and  look  at 
my  picture-gallery  now." 

In  a  room  opening  off  the  library  to  the  right  of 
the  fireplace,  where  Breed  now  led  him  with  the  glee 
of  a  school-boy,  a  row  of  photographs  ran  around 


88  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

the  wall  just  above  the  wainscot.  Phillip,  knowing 
who  and  what  they  were,  looked  upon  them  with  a 
smile.  They  were  the  photographs  of  all  the  more 
important  men  of  Wall  Street,  but  now  upon  each 
photograph  there  was  an  X-shaped  mark  of  red 
ink. 

"  I  checked  them  off  as  they  fell,  one  by  one," 
said  Breed,  with  infinite  malice  in  his  withered  old 
face.  "  Five  years  ago,  when  they  made  that  at 
tack  on  me  and  beat  down  my  cereal  stocks  to  al 
most  nothing,  I  vowed  that  I  would  put  them  out 
of  existence,  and  I  have  done  it,"  and  he  rubbed  his 
thin  hands  together.  "  With  your  help,  my  boy," 
he  hastily  added,  "  with  your  plan  and  your  genius 
and  your  own  hatred  —  and  with  my  resources. 
We  are  a  great  team,  my  son.  I  have  had  reports 
about  you.  I  know  every  move  you  made,  what 
you  did  in  every  hour  that  you  were  in  New  York." 

Phillip  nodded.  He  had  known  that  he  was  sur 
rounded  by  spies. 

"  Moreover,  I  know  everything  you  did  in  all  the 
years  before  you  came  to  me,  and  the  chief  thing 
you  did  not  do,  the  one  thing  which  made  me  se 
lect  you  out  of  the  hundred  others  that  I  had  under 
observation,  was  that  you  did  not  get  into  entangle 
ments  with  women.  How  much  money  did  you 
make  of  your  own?  " 


"  I  checked  them  off   as  they  fell,"  said  Breed 


THE  BILLION  DOLLAR  VAULT      89 

Phillip  drew  a  long  breath.  "  Nearly  half  a  mil 
lion,"  he  replied. 

"  That  is  right,"  said  Breed,  nodding  his  head 
with  emphasis.  "  It  was  in  a  good  cause,  eh,  Lil 
lian?" 

The  girl  laughed  for  answer.  It  was  a  good 
cause. 

"  It  is  all  in  a  good  cause,"  Breed  continued,  as 
if  arguing  against  some  accuser.  "  Business  will  be 
healthier.  The  Stock  Exchange,  instead  of  a  mere 
clearing-house  for  countless  bucket-shops,  will  be 
come  once  more  a  place  for  the  legitimate  exchange 
of  securities.  It  is  a  great  work  I  have  done  for  the 
country,  but  they  won't  realize  it  until  I  am  dead. 
Your  deals,  Phillip?  Is  every  one  closed  that 
could  be  closed?  " 

"  Every  one,"  returned  Phillip  with  satisfaction. 
"  In  a  few  cases  I  could  not  secure  stocks  I  wanted, 
but  for  the  greater  part  I  did.  Those  who  could 
not  pay  had  nothing  to  pay  with." 

"  Right  again !  "  and  once  more  Henry  Breed 
nodded  his  head  vigorously.  "  The  stocks  were  the 
main  thing,  after  we  got  back  all  our  cash.  Come! 
I  will  show  you  something  that  no  one  ever  saw  but 
Lillian  and  myself.  Where  is  Zelphan?"  He 
looked  cautiously  all  around  the  room. 

"  He  is  out  in  the  park,"  said  Lillian. 


90  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  I  don't  want  him  to  see  or  to  know.  Come  this 
way." 

Back  from  this  apartment  was  a  bedroom,  and  in 
it  was  a  closet,  hung  neatly  with  clothes  on  hangers. 
Breed  fumbled  about  for  a  moment  at  the  back  of 
this  closet,  when  suddenly  the  whole  rear  wall 
swung  slowly  upon  its  center.  They  passed  through 
into  a  narrow  passage,  concealed  between  the  chim 
neys  of  the  two  rooms,  and  from  this,  after  swing 
ing  the  closet  wall  shut  behind  them,  the  three 
passed  down  one  long  stairway  and  then  another 
into  a  deep  subcellar,  steel  lined,  like  a  deposit  vault, 
with  four  cell-like  passages,  the  heavy  steel  doors 
of  each  secured  with  a  combination  lock.  Breed  led 
them  slowly  through,  pushing  advance  electric  but 
tons  as  he  went. 

"  Absolutely  impregnable,  this  vault,"  said  he  in 
considerable  pride.  "  Armies  could  not  get  through 
it  unless  they  knew  how.  The  walls  are  six  feet 
thick,  of  alternate  layers  of  steel  plate  and  cellulose, 
which  dynamite  could  hardly  destroy.  The  plates 
were  shipped  here  from  Germany,  in  plain  boxes, 
and  German  workmen  were  brought  here  directly 
from  the  ship,  without  the  slightest  knowledge  of 
where  they  were  going.  When  the  work  was  done 
they  were  sent  away,  and  not  one  of  the  men  knows 
where  he  was.  Look  here."  He  led  them  into  an 
inner  vault,  and  here  were  row  upon  row  of  iron 


THE  BILLION  DOLLAR  VAULT      91 

drawers  filled  with  greenbacks  neatly  bound  in  pack 
ages,  with  the  amounts  marked  on  the  outside.  At 
the  end  of  the  vault  were  rows  of  drawers  filled 
with  gold  in  coin  and  ingots. 

"  Money !  "  said  Breed,  gloating  over  the  con 
tents  as  he  opened  and  closed  these  drawers. 
"  Money !  "  said  he,  and  he  rubbed  his  lean  old 
hands  together,  while  his  eyes  began  to  gleam. 
"  Not  all  these  receptacles  are  filled,  though.  When 
I  had  these  vaults  built  I  calculated  how  much 
money  there  was  in  the  United  States,  and  built  in 
enough  drawers  to  hold  it." 

There  was  something  so  sinister  in  the  way  he 
said  this  that  even  Phillip,  himself  seething  with 
enormous  ambitions,  was  startled.  "  It  would  be 
impossible  to  secure  all  of  it,"  he  ventured,  but 
Breed  did  not  hear  him.  He  was  wrapped  up  in 
some  contemplation  which  heightened  immeasurably 
the  gleam  in  his  eyes. 

Lillian  plucked  Phillip  by  the  sleeve,  and  drew 
him  outside  the  vault. 

"  He  always  likes  to  be  alone  a  little  when  he  is 
down  here,"  she  whispered. 

Phillip  stopped  in  the  second  passage  to  examine 
with  interest  the  heavy  hanging  of  the  door.  Lil 
lian  drew  quite  near  him,  and  slipped  her  hand 
within  his  arm.  He  could  feel  the  warmth  of  that 
hand  instantly.  He  was  more  than  conscious  of 


92  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

the  subtleness  of  her  as  she  drew  close  to  his  side. 
He  was  afraid  of  this  girl,  afraid  of  himself.  The 
thrill  she  gave  him  was  not  like  that  which  he  had 
shared  with  Elsie.  With  Elsie  it  was  love;  with 
this  girl  —  he  drew  slightly  away. 

"  Suppose  anything  should  happen  to  Mr. 
Breed?"  he  asked.  "What  would  become  of  this 
vault?  I  presume  its  combinations  are  written  in 
some  safe  place?  " 

"  They  are  not  written  anywhere,"  she  told  him. 
"  There  is  only  one  person  in  all  the  world,  besides 
my  grandfather,  who  knows  how  to  get  in  here, 
and  that  person  is  myself.  Of  course  I  would  not 
tell,  would  I?" 

He  looked  down  at  her.  Her  eyes  were  up 
turned  to  his,  and  as  he  gazed  into  them  they  blazed. 
She  drew  nearer  to  him.  Her  red  lips  were  half 
parted,  and  through  them  the  warm,  moist  breath 
came  quickly.  He  half  bent  forward,  seized  with 
the  almost  irresistible  impulse  to  take  her  in  his 
arms.  He  was  ashamed  of  that  impulse.  He  had 
not  been  ashamed  when  he  had  longed  to  clasp  Elsie 
to  his  breast.  With  Elsie,  his  heart  had  prompted 
him;  with  this  girl,  his  blood! 

"You  must  keep  away  from  me!"  said  he 
harshly.  "  There  are  things  I  want  to  do  —  big 
things!" 

The  girl  laughed  lightly,  well  content  for  the  time, 


THE  BILLION  DOLLAR  VAULT       93 

but  a  shrill  chuckle  startled  them  both  and  made 
them  turn  hastily.  Old  Henry  Breed  stood  in  the 
door  of  the  vault,  rubbing  his  hands  softly  together. 

"  Good !  "  said  he.  "  Good,  Phillip,  my  boy !  I 
knew  you  were  about  it.  You  keep  as  strong  as 
that,  and  I  will  make  you  anything  you  want  to  be 
—  anything!  " 

In  the  brief  time  that  they  had  been  in  the  vault 
a  heavy  storm  had  come  up,  and  when  they  reached 
the  bedroom,  Breed,  still  chuckling,  following  be 
hind  the  embarrassed  young  people,  they  found  the 
place  pitch  dark.  Phillip,  who  came  out  first,  fan 
cied  that  he  saw  a  figure  in  the  room  as  he  emerged 
from  the  closet,  but  as  his  vision  cleared  he  saw 
that  he  must  have  been  mistaken.  Out  in  the  li 
brary,  however,  they  found  the  gaunt  wireless 
operator,  whose  eyes  seemed  to  have  the  peculiar, 
cat-like  property  of  shining  in  the  darkness.  The 
operator  was  just  turning  on  the  lights,  and  a  flash 
of  lightning  outlined  him  as  he  reached  up  to  press 
the  hanging  bulb. 

"  Ugh!  It  is  like  the  end  of  the  world!  "  shud 
dered  Lillian,  and  she  clung  to  Kelvin  and  her 
grandfather.  "  Such  storms  never  come  up,"  she 
went  on  in  a  low  tone,  "  but  they  make  me  believe 
some  hideous  fate  is  in  store  for  all  of  us." 

What  fate,  indeed?  Had  the  curtain  of  destiny 
been  opened  at  that  moment  to  Mrs.  Rensselaer  and 


94  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

her  nephew,  up  in  the  former's  apartments,  quarrel 
ing  about  the  advisability  and  possibility  of  his  mar 
rying  Lillian;  to  Sam  and  Lucy  in  the  kitchen  at 
war  over  the  first  passages  of  their  rude  courtship; 
to  Ben  White,  pottering  discontentedly  away  in  the 
tool-house;  to  Elsie,  on  her  knees  with  her  face 
buried  in  the  tear-moistened  pillows  of  her  couch;  to 
Phillip  and  Henry  Breed  and  Lillian,  confronting 
the  tall  wireless  operator  in  the  library,  they  might 
well,  perhaps,  have  rushed  out  into  the  storm  and 
prayed  the  lightning  to  strike  them  dead;  but  the 
tall  wireless  operator  would  have  gloated  over  that 
glimpse  into  the  awful  future,  and  would  have 
prayed  to  live. 

"  I  have  a  wireless  for  you,  sir,"  he  said  to  Mr. 
Breed.  The  old  man  took  the  yellow  slip,  and  drew 
under  the  chandelier.  Presently  he  turned  to 
Phillip  triumphantly : 

"The  Board  of  Governors  of  the  New  York 
Stock  Exchange,  after  having  suspended  the  Ex 
change  for  a  week  in  a  vain  attempt  to  straighten 
out  their  muddle,  have  just  called  a  meeting  of  the 
members,  and  the  only  four  to  attend  were  four  of 
the  five  with  whom  you  did  business.  The  seats  of 
all  the  others  are  for  sale,  and  there  are  no  buyers. 
The  Stock  Exchange,"  and  his  voice  rose  to  a  shrill 
and  tremulous  shriek,  "is  wiped  out  of  existence! 
There  is  no  Stock  Exchange !  " 


CHAPTER  IX 

WHICH  TREATS  OF  LOVE  AND  SOCIOLOGY  AND  CASH 
CHIEFLY  CASH 

AT  the  selfsame  moment,  the  next  morning, 
three  men,  in  different  parts  of  the  huge 
stone  structure,  were  engaged  in  curious  oc 
cupations.  •  In  his  bedroom  near  the  top  of  the 
house,  the  gaunt  wireless  operator  was  upon  his 
knees  before  his  open  trunk,  his  long  fingers  slowly 
turning  the  knob  of  a  combination  lock.  The  lock 
was  one  such  as  is  ordinarily  used  on  large  vault 
doors;  it  was  mounted  upon  a  plain  iron  plate,  and 
was  now  temporarily  clamped  upon  the  front  edge 
of  the  trunk,  to  keep  it  in  its  normal  vertical  posi 
tion.  Blagg,  as  he  turned  the  knob,  kept  his  eyes 
carefully  averted  from  it,  but  he  listened  most  in 
tently.  Presently  his  acute  fingers  caught  the  faint 
est  perceptible  shade  of  difference,  as  quickly  as,  if 
not  quicker  than,  his  ears,  for  they  stopped  rigidly 
upon  the  instant.  Blagg  now  looked  at  the  dial, 
then  consulted  a  small  card  which  he  held  in  his  left 
hand,  and  a  look  of  intense  satisfaction,  amounting 
almost  to  fierceness,  flashed  into  his  beady  eyes. 

95 


96  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

The  last  number  of  the  involved  combination  had 
been  found  by  the  senses  of  touch  and  hearing 
alone ! 

"  Cash !  "  he  \vhispered.  "  Millions  of  cash,  all 
gathered  into  one  place !  " 

He  changed  the  combination,  marked  it  carefully 
upon  his  card,  and  started  once  more,  with  averted 
eyes  and  intent  ears,  to  turn  the  knob. 

In  an  office  on  the  second  floor  Phillip  Kelvin 
stood  over  a  large,  hand-drawn  map  that  was  spread 
upon  his  desk.  States  and  rivers  were  but  faintly 
outlined,  and  cities  but  faintly  marked  except  where 
they  were  the  termini  of  railroad  systems,  but  every 
mile  of  every  railroad  in  the  United  States  was 
most  carefully  set  down  in  strong  lines,  though  in 
inks  of  six  different  colors,  indicating  the  six  main 
financial  groups.  Starting  from  the  network  of 
lines  radiating  from  New  York,  Phillip's  clear  eyes 
followed  each  road  in  turn,  ramification  by  ramifica 
tion,  to  the  end,  going  slowly  and  pausing  over  each 
branch,  as  if  to  fix  more  firmly  in  his  mind  certain 
facts  connected  with  it.  As  he  plodded  back  to  the 
starting-point  he  nodded  his  head  in  quiet  satisfac 
tion. 

"  To  make  these  all  one  color,"  he  mused ;  "  that 
will  be  one  step;  then,  with  millions  of  cash  - 

In  his  deep  subcellar  vault,  dynamite-proof,  elec 
tric-drill-proof,  army-proof,  old  Henry  Breed  stood 


LOVE,  SOCIOLOGY  AND  CASH        97 

before  his  rows  upon  rows  of  iron  drawers.  One  of 
them  was  open,  and  the  electric  light  glinted  upon 
gold.  Breed  rubbed  his  withered  hands  together. 
His  thin  lips  were  wreathed  in  a  smile  that  was 
almost  reptilian,  and  his  eyes,  too,  glittered  like  a 
snake's. 

"Cash!"  he  gloated.  "Millions  of  cash,  and 
millions  more  to  come !  " 

There  was  the  sound  of  a  bell  in  the  big  two- 
story  hall.  Blagg  hastily  stopped  his  practice,  re 
stored  his  combination  lock  to  its  strong-box,  turned 
triple  keys  upon  it,  and  double  locked  his  trunk. 

Into  Kelvin's  room  came  huge  black  Sam. 
Phillip  looked  up  with  a  quizzical  smile  which  Sam 
always  aroused,  and  the  smile  turned  to  one  of  keen 
amusement  as  he  noted  a  long,  red  scratch  on  Sam's 
right  cheek  which  exactly  balanced  the  permanent 
scar  upon  his  left.  Had  the  lobe  of  his  right  ear 
been  nipped  as  was  that  of  his  left,  his  countenance 
would  have  been  exactly  symmetrical. 

"  Breakfast  is  called,  suh,"  announced  the  negro. 

"  Where  did  you  get  that  scratch,  Sam  ?  "  asked 
Phillip. 

"  Miss  Lucy,"  answered  Sam.  "  She  suah  am 
a  pow'ful  scratcheh !  "  and  throwing  back  his  head 
he  opened  his  mouth  to  an  enormous  extent,  emit 
ting  a  loud  guffaw  which  ended  in  a  shrill  falsetto. 
"  But  Ah  sweah,  Mistuh  Phillip,  ef  Ah  eveh  mah'y 


98  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

that  gal,  Ah  suttenly  will  bring  heh  pride  maghty 
low." 

Down  into  the  vault  tripped  Lillian  Breed,  her 
dark  cheeks  red  from  her  brisk  morning  walk,  her 
dark  eyes  bright,  her  scarlet  lips  parted  over  her 
white  teeth.  "  I  hurried  in  just  ahead  of  Doctor 
Zelphan,  grandfather,"  she  said.  "  He  will  be  here 
in  a  moment.  The  breakfast-bell  rang  as  I  came 
in  at  the  door." 

With  the  haste  of  a  boy  Breed  followed  her  out 
through  the  four  vestibules,  closing  the  heavy  doors 
of  each  one  behind  him,  throwing  off  the  combina 
tion  of  its  lock,  and  turning  out  the  lights  beyond. 
He  paused  a  moment  to  contemplate  the  door  of  the 
last  one,  then  he  put  his  hands  upon  Lillian's  shoul 
ders. 

"  And  in  all  this  world  only  we  two  know,"  he 
said. 

"  Mr.  Kelvin  knows,"  she  reminded  him. 

"  But  not  the  combinations,"  he  hastened  to  as 
sure  her.  "  Do  you  know  how  I  have  won  my 
supremacy?  It  is  by  finding  big  men  to  do  both 
my  planning  and  my  executing;  by  knowing  such 
men  when  I  see  them.  Kelvin  is  one  of  these,  and 
to  such  a  man  as  he  the  greatest  incentive  that  can 
be  given  him  is  to  show  him  the  tools  with  which 
he  may  work.  I  showed  him  these  enormous  stores 
of  actual  cash  for  that  purpose,  and  the  knowledge 


LOVE,  SOCIOLOGY  AND  CASH       99 

is  safe  with  him.  I  know  men.  We  two,  how 
ever,  are  the  only  ones  who  know  the  way  into  that 
vault."  An  intangible  film  seemed  to  drop  over 
Lillian's  eyes  for  a  second.  In  the  dimness  he 
could  not  see  it,  but  her  breast  heaved  and  her 
breath  came  quicker,  and  that  he  could  recognize. 
"You  appreciate  the  power  of  it  all,  don't  you?" 
he  continued.  "  Perhaps  a  little  too  much ;  but 
don't  be  mistaken,  Lillian.  This  is  not  a  game  of 
tennis,  at  which  a  woman  can  play.  I  have  taken 
you  into  my  confidence  this  far  only  because,  in 
case  anything  should  happen  to  me,  I  want  you  to 
get  at  the  stores  that  will  make  you  the  richest 
woman  in  the  world." 

"  Doctor  Zelphan  will  be  hunting  you,"  she  re 
minded  him. 

Aroused  from  his  momentary  forgetfulness  of  his 
one  bugbear,  the  shrewd  specialist  whom  he  had 
employed  to  look  after  his  health  and  who,  in  that 
capacity,  had  become  a  necessarily  oppressive  bur 
den,  he  hurried  up  through  the  one  room  in  his 
house  to  which  Zelphan  had  been  denied  access, 
and  with  Lillian  passed  into  the  hall  where  Doctor 
Zelphan  stood  awaiting  them.  His  knob  of  a  nose 
was  red  with  impatience. 

"  You  promised,  when  I  left  you  here  at  the  house 
this  morning,  to  join  me  at  the  head  of  Big  Lake," 
he  charged  Breed.  "  If  I  can  not  take  your  word 


ioo  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

for  a  longer  morning  walk,  I  shall  have  to  stay  by 
you  until  you  do.  Put  on  your  hat  and  heavy  coat." 

"  But  breakfast  is  ready,"  protested  Lillian. 

The  doctor  peered  at  her  with  such  open  con 
tempt  that  she  flushed  and  straightened  her  shoul 
ders.  It  was  evident  that  there  was  something 
deeply  antagonistic  between  these  two.  Indeed, 
Doctor  Zelphan,  openly  classing  her  as  a  neurotic, 
had  once  alluded  to  her  as  "  the  sins  of  the  fathers 
unto  the  third  generation." 

"  If  I  employ  a  man  to  make  me  do  things,  I 
suppose  I  ought  to  do  them,"  Breed  laughed,  and 
securing  his  hat  and  coat  went  out  with  the  Spartan 
doctor,  just  as  Phillip  came  down  the  stairway. 

Lillian  waited  for  Phillip,  and  tucked  her  arm 
playfully  into  his  as  he  stepped  from  the  bottom 
stair.  "  I  almost  had  the  honor  of  going  in  to 
breakfast  with  my  grandfather,"  she  said  gaily; 
"  but  see  how  much  greater  honor  my  disappoint 
ment  brings  me." 

"I  admit  it,"  said  Phillip  with  a  smile;  "only 
you  are  not  expressing  my  merit  strongly  enough 
to  do  me  justice." 

She  felt  keenly  the  coldness  beneath  his  echo  of 
her  raillery,  and  the  inward  contempt  that  he  felt 
for  her,  but  she  was  a  true  daughter  of  Eve,  and 
knew  that  he  felt  the  warmth  of  her  hand  upon  his 
arm;  she  knew,  too,  that  he  sometimes  trembled 


LOVE,  SOCIOLOGY  AND  CASH      101 

under  her  unexpected  touch,  and  with  that  she  was 
content,  for  the  time. 

In  the  dining-room  they  found  only  Mrs.  Rens- 
selaer  and  her  nephew.  Mrs.  Rensselaer  bowed 
stiffly  to  Phillip,  who,  though  accounted  worth  a 
million  or  so  through  his  own  exertions,  was  of  a 
minor  family,  while  she  was  of  the  very  oldest; 
but  she  was  delighted  to  say  good  morning  to  her 
young  protegee,  whom  she  was  shudderingly  bound 
to  coach  for  introduction  into  certain  most  exclusive 
circles  — "  not  the  parvenucs,  you  know,  but  the 
really  irreproachable  people." 

"  How  charming  you  are  looking  this  morning, 
child !  "  she  exclaimed.  "  Did  you  ever  see  such  a 
picture  of  health,  Herbert?  " 

Herbert  had  his  own  opinions  about  Lillian. 
There  was  too  much  nervous  energy  within  her  to 
strike  him  as  quite  normal  after  his  acquaintance 
with  healthy  outdoor  girls.  There  was  too  much 
elasticity  in  her  step,  too  much  color  in  her  cheeks, 
too  much  sparkle  in  her  eyes. 

"  She  is  the  goddess  of  the  morning,"  he  stated, 
"  the  very  liqueur  of  life,  the  very  spirit  of  spring, 
the  very  quintessence  of  what-you-may-call-'em. 
Howdy,  Miss  Lillian." 

"  I'm  in  my  element,"  responded  that  young  lady, 
laughing;  "  for  the  imp  of  perversity  seems  to  have 
been  let  loose  upon  us  this  morning.  Grandfather 


102  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

and  his  doctor,  Mr.  Kelvin,  Mr.  Rensselaer,  and  my 
self,  all  have  fallen  victims  to  him.  Every  one  has 
but  Mrs.  Rensselaer;  and  who  could  consider  her 
in  the  light  of  a  victim  to  anything?  " 

"  No  one,  I  trust,"  said  that  lady  solemnly,  and 
began  to  gloom  in  the  utmost  majesty,  for  Mrs. 
Rensselaer  was  most  particular  about  her  dignity 
when  among  the  canaille.  Inspired  by  her  eminence 
among  these  people  of  no  birth,  Mrs.  Rensselaer 
made  the  rest  of  that  breakfast  as  much  a  function 
of  state  as  possible. 

After  breakfast,  Phillip,  wearied  of  this  play  of 
cross-purposes,  slipped  away  by  himself  for  a  few 
moments,  against  the  time  when  Breed  should  call 
upon  him  or  send  for  him  to  take  up  the  heavy  pro 
jects  they  had  under  way.  He  walked  back  toward 
the  kitchen-garden,  where  Blagg,  having  finished 
breakfast  in  the  housekeeper's  dining-room  with  old 
Fargus,  Breed's  secretary,  had  already  preceded 
him.  Blagg  was  leaning  over  the  fence,  listening, 
with  a  grim  smile,  to  a  tirade  from  Ben  White. 

"  Why,"  White  was  demanding,  "  has  this  man 
the  power  to  hire  me,  to  hire  anybody?  Why  is  it 
possible,  in  this  country  of  so-called  equal  oppor 
tunities,  for  one  man  to  accumulate  wealth  enough 
to  hire  a  hundred  people  to  wait  on  him?  Why  is 
our  social  condition  such  that  the  stronger  can  op 
press  the  weaker  ?  " 


LOVE,  SOCIOLOGY  AND  CASH     103 

"  Possibly,  Ben,"  broke  in  Phillip,  "  so  that  only 
the  stronger  shall  survive,  as  has  been  the  law  since 
Cain  killed  Abel.  No  doubt  if  Abel  had  lived,  he 
would  have  been  the  father  of  a  race  of  weaklings 
who  would  have  died  out  of  their  own  invirility, 
after  weakening  the  race  of  Cain." 

Both  White  and  Blagg  had  turned,  startled  at  the 
interruption,  but  now  Blagg  fixed  upon  Phillip  a 
searching  eye,  and  declared : 

"  You  don't  believe  quite  what  you  say,  Mr. 
Kelvin." 

"Quite  true,"  admitted  Phillip.  "It  becomes 
necessary,  however,  to  say  such  absurd  things  in 
order  to  bring  down  the  general  average  of  what  my 
friend,  Citizen  White,  says." 

White,  still  bleached  with  the  traces  of  his  one 
time  plastering  business,  looked  up  with  a  smile. 
"  Good  morning,  Plutocrat,"  he  observed.  "  Here 
is  one  plutocrat,  Blagg,  whom  I  am  bound  to  save 
when  the  revolution  comes.  He  secured  our  places 
here  for  my  daughter  and  myself." 

"  When  the  revolution  comes  we'll  see  about  it," 
said  Blagg,  laughing,  and  walked  away. 

"  There's  a  smart  man,"  said  White,  nodding  in 
the  direction  of  Blagg.  "  He  has  all  the  facts  of 
our  social  condition  at  his  finger-tips.  He  can  tell 
you  how  many  people  starved  last  year,  and  he  can 
tell  you  why  they  starved.  He  can  show  you,  ir 


104  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

our  scheme  of  government,  the  hundred  flaws  which 
permit  all  these  vicious  inequalities  of  wealth." 

"  Can  he  tell  yon,"  quizzed  Phillip,  "  why  shift 
less  men  fail  in  business?  "Why  drones  hang  to  the 
lowest  positions?  Why  unambitious  workmen  are 
the  first  to  be  laid  off  when  a  pinch  comes?  Why 
improvident  people  have  nothing  saved  for  a  rainy 
day?" 

It  was  a  direct  thrust  at  White,  and  he  colored 
under  it.  With  anybody  else  he  would  have  blus 
tered  ;  but  Phillip  knew  his  history. 

"  It  is  all  very  well  to  talk  of  inequalities,"  went 
on  Phillip,  "  but  most  of  the  talk  I  have  heard  has 
been  irrational,  and  so  useless.  I  think  our  socio 
logical  mistakes  can  be  remedied,  and  will  be  reme 
died,  but  if  the  remedy  were  left  to  the  people  who 
talk  most  about  it  we  would  have  things  radically 
wrong  the  other  way.  How  are  those  wonderful 
string-beans  getting  on?  " 

"  Fine !  "  replied  White,  brightening.  "  Come  in% 
side  and  look  at  them,"  and,  touched  upon  the  point 
of  his  greatest  enthusiasm,  he  showed  Phillip  about 
his  garden,  descanting  for  a  full  twenty  minutes 
upon  the  culture  of  green  corn,  and  illustrating  his 
lecture  with  growing  examples. 

Mrs.  White  and  Elsie  came  across  from  the 
Whites'  cottage.  Elsie  had  run  down  for  an  early 


LOVE,  SOCIOLOGY  AND  CASH      105 

morning  call  and  was  on  her  way  into  the  garden. 
Seeing  Phillip,  she  was  about  to  return  to  the  house 
instead,  but  her  mother  dragged  her  on. 

"  Good  for  sore  eyes  to  see  you,  Phillip,"  hailed 
Mrs.  White,  gay  in  a  new  dress  and  smirking  with 
renewed  prosperity.  "  We  owe  a  mighty  lot  to 
you,  Mr.  Kelvin,  and  it's  fine  to  get  a  chance  to 
thank  you.  Goodness !  We've  been  here  an  age  it 
seems,  and  we  haven't  seen  you  once  in  all  that 
time." 

"  I  have  been  rather  busy,  Mrs.  White,"  said 
Phillip ;  "  but  you  may  rest  assured  that  I  have  not 
forgotten  my  old  friends." 

"  I  knew  you  hadn't,"  she  returned  heartily.  "  I 
told  Elsie  so.  Says  I,  *  He  might  have  rich  girls 
setting  their  caps  at  him,  but  he  ain't  blind;  and  he 
ain't  the  kind  to  forget  his  old  friends.'  Didn't  I, 
Elsie?" 

The  girl  flushed  painfully,  but  she  was  too  whole 
some  not  to  see  the  humor,  embarrassing  though  it 
might  be,  of  her  mother's  transparent  intention,  and 
she  revealed  her  white  teeth  in  a  dazzling  smile. 

"  Indeed  you  did,  mother,"  she  replied,  laughing, 
"  and  much  more  which  it  is  entirely  unnecessary  to 
repeat,  since  Phillip  knows  us  all  of  old." 

In  the  meantime  Blagg  had  gone  to  his  operating- 
room,  and,  having  tested  his  instruments  and  made 


io6  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

ready  for  the  day's  work,  he  went  to  the  window 
overlooking  the  garden  and  gazed  out  in  deep 
thought. 

Young  Rensselaer  strolled  into  the  room,  partly 
to  escape  from  his  aunt's  insistence  that  he  should 
court  and  marry  Lillian  Breed,  and  partly  because 
both  Blagg  and  his  art  interested  him.  Blagg 
turned  and  nodded,  then  looked  out  the  window 
again,  and  Rensselaer  joined  him. 

"  I  suppose  that  if  I  were  to  offer  a  penny  for 
your  thoughts,  and  you  should  take  me  up,  I  would 
be  a  heavy  loser,"  he  observed. 

"  It  depends  upon  what  kind  of  thoughts  you 
would  want  for  your  penny,"  returned  Blagg. 
"  To  be  perfectly  frank,  I  was  thinking  of  young 
Kelvin  out  there." 

"  What  about  him?  "  inquired  Rensselaer  quickly. 

"  Seems  to  be  a  nice  sort  of  fellow,"  returned 
Blagg  evasively. 

"  I  should  say  he  is !  "  declared  Rensselaer.  "  I 
punched  cows  with  him  for  six  months  out  in  Mon 
tana,  and  I  never  found  a  better  or  squarer  fellow 
anywhere.  If  the  world  were  made  up  of  people 
like  Kelvin  it  would  be  all  right." 

"  Yes,"  admitted  Blagg,  "  if  the  world  were  made 
up  of  people  exactly  like  Kelvin  it  would  be  all 
right;  they  would  all  have  an  equal  chance.  But 


LOVE,  SOCIOLOGY  AND  CASH     107 

since  the  world  contains  but  a  few  men  like  him,  he 
is  dangerous." 

"Nonsense!"  replied  Rensselaer.     "Why?" 

"  Because  he  alone,  aided  by  Breed's  money,  was 
able  to  destroy  a  tremendous  institution  like  the 
Stock  Exchange,"  returned  Blagg  heatedly.  "  It 
should  have  been  wiped  out  of  existence  no  doubt, 
but  in  the  process  of  breaking  it  up,  thousands  of 
banks  went  under,  thousands  of  business  concerns 
were  bankrupted,  and  thousands  of  factories  sus 
pended  work.  Countless  thousands  of  helpless  poor 
were  thrown  out  of  employment  and  faced  starva 
tion;  and  these  are  the  people  who  invariably  suf 
fer." 

Rensselaer  was  silent  under  an  entirely  new  train 
of  ideas. 

"  See  now  what  follows,"  Blagg  went  on. 
"  Their  end  having  been  accomplished,  Kelvin  hav 
ing  enriched  himself  by  a  million  or  so  of  dollars 
and  Breed  by  untold  millions,  Kelvin,  by  merely 
opening  his  mouth,  with  Breed's  consent,  stops  the 
panic.  What  does  he  do?  He  issues  to  the  press 
this  morning  an  announcement  that  the  cash  drain 
has  stopped,  that  Breed  no  longer  requires  ship 
ments  of  actual  money  for  his  bread,  and  that  one 
hundred  million  dollars  of  currency,  a  very  small 
percentage  of  what  he  has  taken  in,  is  to  be  put 


io8  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

back  into  circulation.  What  happens  next?  Im 
mediately  confidence  will  be  restored,  credit  will  be 
reestablished,  banks  and  business  houses  will  re 
adjust  themselves,  factories  will  begin  operating, 
people  will  go  back  to  work.  Don't  you  see  the 
monstrous  thing  in  this?  The  very  lives  of  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children 
have  depended  upon  this  man's  word!  This  is  not 
young  Kelvin's  wrork;  he  is  an  opportunist,  able  to 
see  with  unusual  shrewdness  his  chances  as  they 
come  to  him;  but  the  crime  of  it  all  is  in  the  social 
system  which  permits  any  one  man  to  hold  so  much 
power  over  the  life  and  welfare  of  so  vast  an  army 
of  human  beings.  It  is  all  wrong.  It  is  mon 
strous!  Some  day  that  system  will  be  swept  away, 
and  with  it  must  be  swept  young  Kelvin  and  all  his 
kind." 

"  You  talk  like  Kelvin  himself  used  to  talk  out 
on  the  ranch,"  Rensselaer  smilingly  remarked. 
"  Kelvin  has  his  own  dreams  of  reform.  You 
ought  to  compare  notes." 

"  I  doubt  if  our  dreams  would  be  found  to  be  of 
the  same  stuff,"  returned  Blagg  grimly.  "  I 
scarcely  think  that  his  deeds,  up  to  date,  would  en 
title  him  to  any  philanthropic  claims.  The  only 
ones  benefited  by  his  activity  are  a  very  few  of  his 
own  kind,  Breed  and  himself,  chiefly.  I  don't  see 
\vhat  has  been  gained  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands 


LOVE,  SOCIOLOGY  AND  CASH      109 

of  workmen  who  had  to  do  the  only  actual  suffer 
ing  in  the  campaign.  Take  the  gardener  out  there. 
He  and  his  family  would  have  starved  had  not  Kel 
vin  personally  secured  them  these  places  —  because 
he  used  to  board  with  them  when  he  was  poor. 
Even  if  Kelvin  could  have  reached  all  of  his  inno 
cent  victims  in  person,  and  could  have  been  of 
benefit  to  them,  it  would  only  have  been  wholesale 
charity.  And  charity  is  the  gross  insult  of  our 
century  to  men  who  are  able,  willing,  and  anxious 
to  make  a  living  by  hard  toil  out  of  the  natural 
resources  on  this  globe.  Every  man  has  a  right  to 
delve  into  the  soil,  abundantly  fertile  to  keep  us  all, 
and  reap  from  it  a  living.  It  was  for  this  that  the 
Creator  provided  the  earth  and  its  richness." 

"  See  the  sunshine  and  hear  the  little  birds  twit 
ter,"  flippantly  interrupted  Rensselaer,  who  did 
most  of  his  thinking  on  the  instalment  plan.  "  In 
the  meantime  would  it  not  be  a  pity  to  sweep  out 
of  existence  such  a  tall,  well-built,  good-looking, 
decent  sort  of  chap  as  Kelvin?" 

Phillip  and  Elsie  had  by  this  time  left  the  garden, 
and  were  now  walking  slowly  toward  the  house. 

"  Yes,"  Blagg  admitted,  "  it  would;  and  it  makes 
it  all  the  harder  when  you  see  so  beautiful  a  girl 
as  that  looking  up  at  him  with  that  amount  of 
adoration." 

Rensselaer  nodded  his  head.     The  advancing  pair 


i  io  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

had  drawn  quite  near  to  the  house.  Kelvin  was 
carrying  a  basket  for  the  girl,  and  was  pointing 
out  something  in  a  tree-top.  She  was  not  following 
the  direction  of  his  hand,  but  was  looking  up  at 
him,  and  the  look  in  her  eyes  was  such  as  comes  to 
a  woman  for  but  one  man.  Kelvin  turnedgand  she 
shifted  her  gaze.  Immediately  brought  to  herself, 
she  was  all  animation  and  interest  in  the  thing  about 
which  he  was  talking.  Lillian  Breed,  coming  from 
a  cross  path  just  behind  Phillip  and  Elsie  and  half 
concealed  by  shrubbery,  stopped  instantly  as  she 
saw  them,  clutching  her  hand  upon  her  breast  and 
half  crouching. 

"  Look  at  that  girl !  "  said  Rensselaer.  "  In 
figure  she  is  positively  the  most  beautiful  creature 
I  have  ever  seen,  but  she  is  beautiful  like  a  cat, 
like  a  tigress." 

He  glanced  at  Blagg's  face  and  half  recoiled.  It 
flashed  upon  him  instantly  that  if  Lillian  were  a 
tigress,  here  was  the  male  of  her  species.  His  eyes 
were  blazing,  and  his  lips  were  parted  in  almost  a 
snarl  as  he  viewed  the  succeeding  tableau.  Lillian 
suddenly  advanced  upon  Kelvin  and  Elsie,  startling 
them  both.  They  found  her  smiling.  Blagg  and 
Rensselaer  could  see  her  give  some  brief  but  per 
emptory  directions  to  Elsie,  and  the  maid,  hastily 
taking  the  basket  from  Phillip's  hand,  hurried  into 
the  house.  Phillip,  outwardly  unmoved,  saw  her  go 


LOVE,  SOCIOLOGY  AND  CASH     air 

and  outwardly  unmoved  he  walked  with  Lillian  out 
of  view  around  the  wing  of  the  house. 

"  And  the  queer  thing  of  it,"  said  Rensselaer,  a 
trifle  regretfully,  "  is  that  he  doesn't  care  a  hang 
for  either  of  them." 

"Tlj('s  it!"  exclaimed  Blagg.  "That's  just 
what  I'm  telling  you.  He  cares  for  no  creature  in 
this  world  but  himself!  " 

"  I  don't  believe  that  either,"  declared  Rensselaer. 


CHAPTER  X 

GEORGE  BLAGG  ENDS  A  CONVERSATION  BY  WHISTLING 
THE  MARSEILLAISE 

AS  Henry  Breed,  released  from  Zelphan  and 
breakfast,  opened  the  door  of  Kelvin's  of 
fice,  Lillian  started  hastily  from  the  back  of 
Phillip's  chair,  over  which  she  had  been  leaning. 
The  girl  was  confused,  but  the  young  man  was  not, 
though  his  eyes  rested  speculatively  upon  Doctor 
Zelphan,  who,  following  Breed  with  a  bundle  of 
golf-sticks,  stood  regarding  Phillip  and  Lillian  with 
a  half-smile  that  was  almost  concealed  by  his  bushy 
beard. 

"  How  nearly  do  you  know  ?  "  asked  Breed,  ig 
noring  the  girl  altogether. 

Kelvin,  his  map  put  away  now,  bent  over  a  very 
large  sheet  of  white  cardboard,  ruled  and  cross- 
ruled  in  blue  and  red,  and  swept  his  eye  across  the 
diagrammatically  arranged  figures. 

Breed  watched  the  clean-cut  face  of  the  young 
man  sharply.  In  spite  of  the  intense  concentration 
in  Kelvin's  eyes,  there  was  no  trace  of  lines  in  his 
brow.  Concentration,  then,  was  no  effort  to  him. 

112 


BLAGG  ENDS  A  CONVERSATION      113 

His  prominent  jaws  were  firmly  closed,  but  there 
was  no  tenseness  of  the  muscles.  Determination, 
then,  was  a  habit  with  him,  not  a  momentary  pose. 
His  blue  eyes  were  clear,  his  complexion  was  fresh 
and  pink,  with  no  trace  of  dryness  or  sallowness. 
He  had  not,  then,  spent  any  portion  of  his  night  in 
worry.  He  sat  easily  in  his  chair,  his  broad  shoul 
ders  in  the  comfort  of  habitual  erectness  and  his 
well-formed  hands  lying  carelessly  but  steadily  upon 
the  edge  of  the  table;  yet  he  had  his  huge  subject 
well  in  hand. 

"  The  situation  clears  up  more  the  further  I  go 
into  it,"  said  he.  "  Out  of  the  panic  we  have 
emerged  with  a  considerable  profit  in  cash,  and  with 
actual  possession  of  eighteen  per  cent,  of  the  New 
York  Central,  and  about  the  same  of  the  Pennsyl 
vania,  Southern  and  Union  Pacific,  Northern  Pa 
cific,  Southern  Railway,  and  New  Haven  groups. 
These  practically  govern  all  other  railroads." 

Breed  sat  down  upon  the  stiff  settee  which  Kel 
vin  had  insisted  upon  having  in  this  room  instead 
of  a  padded  Morris-chair,  and  placing  the  tips  of 
his  long  wrinkled  fingers  together,  looked  contem 
platively  out  of  the  window,  his  bald  head  glisten 
ing  beneath  the  edge  of  his  golf-cap.  His  beady 
eyes  glittered  above  his  hawk-like  nose;  his  pointed 
chin  was  tilted. 

"  Is  it  enough  ?  "  he  asked.     "  I  want  absolute 


ii4  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

control  of  every  mile  of  railroad  in  the  United 
States." 

"  I  think  you  have  enough,"  replied  Kelvin. 

Breed  looked  at  him  questioningly,  then  he 
turned  sharply  to  his  granddaughter.  "  Lillian,  you 
had  better  run  along  and  get  ready,  if  you  are  go 
ing  out  upon  the  links  with  us." 

The  girl,  who  had  lounged  into  the  window  em 
brasure  upon  the  entrance  of  Breed  and  the  doctor, 
straightened  up  and  started  slowly  toward  the  door, 
then  suddenly  she  wheeled.  "  I  want  to  stay !  "  she 
declared.  "  Grandfather,  do  you  know  what  you 
are  doing  to  me?  I  have  all  the  nervous  energy 
you  failed  to  bequeath  to  my  father.  You  coop  me 
up  here.  I  must  have  an  interest  in  something; 
something  big,  or  I  shall  go  mad !  " 

The  doctor  was  the  only  one  of  the  trio  who 
scrutinized  her  closely.  The  other  two,  for  some 
unaccountable  reason,  kept  their  eyes  averted,  Kel 
vin  studious  upon  his  diagram  and  Breed  looking 
out  the  window  again,  apparently  oblivious  of  the 
fact  that  Lillian's  gaze  was  bent  upon  him,  her  dark 
eyes  flashing,  her  unusually  red  lips  half  parted,  the 
over-color  in  her  oval  cheeks  surging  in  carmine 
waves,  her  breast  heaving,  her  fists  clenched. 

"  I  tell  you  I  shall  die  if  I  have  no  battle  to  fight 
except  myself  and  the  social  inanities  which  Mrs. 
Rensselaer  is  presumed  to  teach  me  before  I  may 


"  Leave  the  room !  "   Breed  said  curtly 


show  myself  in  Madison  Avenue!"  she  declared. 
"  As  an  ambition,  that  does  not  seem  to  promise 
much  scope.  I  want  larger  things  —  they  can  not 
be  too  large.  I,  too,  would  build  an  empire  or  de 
stroy  one !  " 

For  the  first  time  Kelvin  looked  quietly  up  at  her. 
She  was  a  picture  of  striking  beauty,  but  there  was 
about  her  a  certain  savageness,  such  as  a  Lucrezia 
Borgia  might  have  had,  Kelvin  thought,  or  such  as 
animated  the  woman- vultures  of  the  French 
Revolution. 

Henry  Breed  was  possessed  of  no  such  dramatic 
comparisons.  "  Leave  the  room !  "  he  said  curtly. 

For  just  a  moment  she  paused  as  if  in  thought 
of  further  defiance,  then,  catching  Kelvin's  eye,  she 
half  held  forward  her  hand  as  if  in  appeal  to  him. 
There  was  a  physical  change  in  the  contour  of  his 
eyelids,  in  the  focusing  of  his  eyes,  and  in  the  nar 
rowing  of  his  pupils,  so  slight  as  to  be  almost  in 
definable,  and  yet  in  them  there  sat  such  a  look  of 
stony  impregnability,  while  his  lips  squared  ever  so 
slightly  but  uncompromisingly,  that  she  suddenly 
whirled  upon  her  heel  and  strode  out  the  door,  slam 
ming  it  behind  her. 

Doctor  Zelphan  followed  her  with  his  eyes,  but 
the  half-smile  was  still  lurking  under  his  beard. 
The  other  two  heaved  sighs  when  she  was  gone. 
Breed  dismissed  the  episode  immediately. 


n6  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Now  you  may  explain,"  he  told  Kelvin. 

"  Well,"  said  Kelvin,  "  the  entire  railroad  map  is 
changed  since  the  panic.  All  the  names  familiar  to 
the  railroad  world  have  passed  into  history.  Next 
week  they  will  have  been  forgotten.  The  enormous 
control  of  each  of  those  men  was  like  an  inverted 
pyramid,  of  which  he  was  the  supporting  apex. 
Your  slaughter  of  the  entire  margin  system  of  stock- 
gambling  pulled  out  one  block  after  another  from 
the  under  side  of  those  pyramids,  and  each  and 
every  one  of  them,  disintegrating,  fell  upon  its 
builder,  crushing  him  flat  to  the  earth.  Not  one 
of  them  can  rise  again  from  the  wreck." 

Breed  nodded  his  head  in  comprehension,  and 
his  thin,  flexible  lips  bent  into  a  cruel  smile.  "  I 
know,"  said  he.  "  There  is  a  red  mark  upon  each 
of  their  photographs." 

Kelvin  nodded  briefly.  "  But  those  men  have 
shown  us  the  way.  Let  me  give  you,  as  an  illus 
tration,  the  control  of  one  man.  For  five  years  he 
denied  that  he  had  any  interest  in  a  certain  large 
road;  but  there  came  a  time  when  a  holding  com 
pany  in  which  he  was  interested  had  secured  fifteen 
per  cent,  of  the  stock  of  that  road,  and  this  fifteen 
per  cent,  was  the  largest  single  minority  holding. 
The  man  in  question  held,  in  his  own  name,  less 
than  ten  per  cent,  of  the  stock  of  the  holding  com 
pany,  but  it  was  to  the  interest  of  every  member 


BLAGG  ENDS  A  CONVERSATION     117 

that  he  nominate  his  own  directors  and  control  the 
destiny  of  the  company.  Through  this  control, 
therefore,  he  virtually  possessed,  personally,  that  fif 
teen  per  cent,  of  the  stock  of  the  big  railroad.  With 
that  fifteen  per  cent,  he  sent,  in  his  own  name,  an 
appeal  to  the  scattered  stock-holders  for  proxies,  and 
through  his  personal  prestige  he  came  into  the  stock 
holders'  meeting  of  the  big  road  voting  sixty  per 
cent,  of  the  stock,  and  put  through  his  own  slate 
of  directors  and  officers.  Then,  through  similar 
means  and  through  this  one  road,  he  controlled  all 
its  branches  and  dependents,  aggregating  many 
thousands  of  miles,  and  all  despite  the  fact  that  he 
himself  actually  held  not  one  per  cent,  of  the  value 
of  all  this  stock! " 

Breed  nodded  his  head.  "  I  have  a  check-mark 
upon  that  man's  photograph,  too.  This  deal  was  a 
part  of  the  pyramid  which  crushed  him." 

"  But  it  can't  crush  you,"  returned  Phillip.  He 
poised  his  pencil  over  different  points  in  his  dia 
gram,  where,  opposite  the  name  of  each  road,  was 
set  its  total  number  of  outstanding  stocks  and  bonds. 
He  was  not  hunting  any  specific  information,  for 
he  had  it  all  well  in  mind,  but  merely  hovering  over 
the  figures  as  a  general  might  cast  his  eye  across  his 
ranks,  to  make  sure  that  nothing  was  amiss. 

"  You  are  the  only  man  in  the  world  to-day  who 
is  able  to  bring  practically  endless  resources  to  the 


n8  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

support  of  any  project,"  he  continued.  "  For  in 
stance,  with  an  actual  holding  of  less  than  one  per 
cent,  of  the  total  stock  of  all  the  railroad  corpora 
tions  in  the  United  States,  you  are  able  to  dominate 
every  mile  of  iron  highway,  to  depose  or  elevate 
any  man  in  the  railroad  business,  from  brakeman 
to  president ;  that  is,  after  you  have  taken  the  reins. 
You  have  only  one  rival." 

Breed  raised  his  head  quickly.  "Rollins?"  he 
said. 

"  Sumner  Rollins,"  repeated  Kelvin. 

"What  made  you  think  so?  You  spoke  of  him 
yesterday." 

"  I  met  him  during  the  days  of  the  panic.  Rail 
roads  are  a  hobby  with  him.  He  thinks  that,  with 
proper  management,  they  can  be  made  practically 
safe  to  the  public,  and  still  yield  better  dividends. 
He  is  a  conservative  man,  who  has  never  speculated 
upon  margin;  in  fact,  he  is  one  of  the  few  men 
whom  your  campaign  against  the  Stock  Exchange 
and  Stock  Exchange  methods  could  not  affect. 
During  the  closing  days  of  the  panic,  when  such 
stocks  as  Northern  Pacific  were  reduced  to  the  ab 
surd  figure  of  twenty-nine,  Rollins  was  in  the  mar 
ket  to  buy  actual  stock  for  spot  cash ;  and  in  several 
of  these  roads  he  is  to-day  the  second  minority 
stock-holder  to  yourself.  I  kept  close  record  of  his 


BLAGG  ENDS  A  CONVERSATION      119 

transactions,  and,  in  fact,  I  sold  him  some  Northern 
Pacific  and  some  New  Haven  myself." 

"  You  did !  "  exclaimed  Breed,  surprised  and  not 
altogether  pleased. 

For  the  first  time  since  the  opening  of  the  inter 
view  Kelvin  laid  down  his  pencil  and  leaned  back 
in  his  chair.  His  face  was  a  trifle  pale.  He  was 
about  to  reveal  himself  perhaps  more  daringly  than 
Breed  would  like.  "  I  did  not  exceed  my  instruc 
tions,"  he  explained,  "  for,  in  pursuance  of  my 
plan,  you  merely  told  me  to  secure  of  the  six  lead 
ing  stocks  all  that  I  could.  I  did  so,  but  found  that 
I  had  much  more  than  necessary  of  some  stocks 
and  not  enough  of  others,  so  I  traded.  I  could  well 
afford  to  let  Rollins  or  any  other  man  have  some  of 
my  surplus  Northern  Pacific  and  New  Haven  for 
the  purpose  of  obtaining  more  Union  Pacific  and 
Southern  Railroad  stock.  As  it  stands  now,  I  have 
secured  the  exact  balance  necessary  to  secure  control 
in  each  organization,  according  to  their  difficulty 
of  control.  Whatever  I  had  over  this  necessary 
amount  I  let  go,  in  order  to  secure  minor  holdings 
sufficient  to  entitle  you  to  a  personal  representation 
in  every  railroad,  major  or  minor,  in  the  United 
States." 

Breed  studied  young  Kelvin  for  a  long  time  in 
thoughtful  silence,  but  in  the  end  he  merely  grunted 


120  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

by  way  of  comment.  "  How  strong  a  rival  do  you 
consider  Rollins  to  be?  "  he  asked. 

"  Formidable,"  replied  Kelvin.  "  All  the  more 
so  because  he  has  a  personal  dislike  for  you." 

"  How  does  he  know  I  had  him  let  out  ?  "  asked 
Breed. 

Kelvin  smiled.  "  How  could  he  help  knowing 
it?  He  was  dismissed  from  the  management  of 
the  old  list  of  roads,  formerly  known  as  the  Parsons 
group,  immediately  after  you  secured  a  place  in  the 
directorate  for  Hammel,  who  was  distinctly  known 
as  your  man.  He  charges  very  openly  that  he  was 
decapitated  because  he  stood  in  the  way  of  the 
scheme  by  which  the  Parsons  group  was  deliberately 
wrecked  and  laid  open  to  capture  by  the  Maclntyre 
interests." 

Breed  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  Mere  dislike 
doesn't  make  a  man  formidable,"  he  declared.  "  I 
would  rather  fight  against  a  man  who  hates  me 
than  against  any  other  kind." 

"  Not  when  he  is  square,  as  Rollins  is,"  objected 
Kelvin.  "  Don't  underestimate  this  man,  Mr. 
Breed.  I  don't  know  where  he  got  the  money, 
but  — " 

"  The  independent  steel  corporations,"  interrupted 
Breed. 

Kelvin  stopped  a  moment  and  considered  this 
new  thought.  "That's  so!"  he  exclaimed,  and 


BLAGG  ENDS  A  CONVERSATION     121 

made  a  pencil  note  on  the  margin  of  his  diagram. 
"  Then  he  is  doubly  formidable.  As  I  told  you, 
he  holds,  second  to  yourself,  the  highest  minority 
block  of  stock  in  each  of  the  big  systems.  He  is 
going  to  make  a  strong  campaign  for  proxies,  and 
he  is  to  be  feared  because,  while  not  so  well  known 
to  the  public  as  yourself,  he  is  more  favorably 
known ;  and  when  they  come  to  investigate  him  they 
will  find  him  to  be  a  man  of  stern  probity." 

It  was  the  blunt  truth,  said  bluntly.  Kelvin 
waited  in  some  trepidation  to  see  how  Breed  would 
take  it. 

"  The  people  are  fools ! "  declared  Breed  in  some 
heat.  "  I  know  what  they  think  of  me,  but  they 
have  no  right  to  do  so.  I  have  given  away  colossal 
fortunes  in  the  endowment  of  universities,  churches, 
and  public  institutions,  and  they  give  me  no  thanks 
for  it;  none  whatever!  It  is  time  that  the  public 
was  chastised,  and  mine  is  the  appointed  hand !  " 

His  voice  arose  to  a  sudden  shrill  pitch,  and  he 
began  to  tremble.  Doctor  Zelphan,  who  had  been 
watching  him,  hurried  to  him  and  put  a  broad  red 
hand  upon  his  shoulder. 

"  A  wireless  for  you,"  broke  in  a  new  voice. 

Kelvin,  turning,  saw  Blagg  standing  in  the  door 
way.  How  long  he  had  been  there,  none  of  them 
could  have  told.  For  the  first  time  Kelvin  noticed 
that  Blagg's  thinness  was  the  thinness  of  a  man 


122  ,THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

whose  flesh  had  been  reduced  to  nothing  but  sinewy 
muscle.  He  was  not  much  above  thirty-five,  and 
there  was  an  indefinable  air  of  recklessness  about 
him;  secrecy,  too,  for  after  a  fleeting  glance  he  in 
variably  kept  his  eyes  averted  from  certain  people. 

Breed  took  the  wireless  and  read  it;  then  he 
looked  up  at  Kelvin  with  a  curious  smile.  "  So 
you  think  I'd  better  send  for  Rollins  and  make  peace 
with  him  ?  "  he  said.  "  You  suggested  that  yester 
day,  I  think." 

Kelvin  colored  slightly.  He  felt  that  he  had 
transparently  wasted  time  in  coming  to  this  trans 
parent  conclusion.  "  It  seems  inevitable  to  me,"  he 
replied. 

"Well,  I  have  already  sent  for  him,"  announced 
Breed  dryly.  "  Here  is  his  answer.  He  will  ar 
rive  here  at  three  o'clock,"  and  with  an  air  of 
triumph  Breed  arose,  and,  accompanied  by  the  doc 
tor,  went  out. 

Blagg  gazed  at  Kelvin  curiously  a  moment,  and 
then  laughed,  a  laugh  that  was  entirely  mirthless. 
"  He  always  has  a  surprise  for  you,  hasn't  he?  "  he 
ventured. 

"  He  is  a  remarkable  man,"  said  Kelvin  soberly ; 
"  a  big  man." 

"  Yes,"  agreed  Blagg,  "  everything  about  him  is 
big;  his  fortune  especially.  The  population  of  the 
United  States  is  now  almost  ninety  millions.  Henry 


BLAGG  ENDS  A  'CONVERSATION      123 

Breed  holds,  according  to  my  guess,  nearly  twenty 
dollars  in  money  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
in  the  United  States.  Ten  million  of  these  people 
are  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  and  their  twenty 
dollars  to-day  would  stand  between  them  and  hell. 
Seventy  million  more  are  merely  living  like  dogs." 

"If  they  had  their  twenty  dollars  apiece  they 
would  spend  it,"  explained  Kelvin  suavely,  "  and 
some  Breed  or  other  would  have  it  again  in  no 
time." 

"  But  if  there  were  no  Breeds  to  establish  enor 
mous  money-draining  systems  by  means  of  the  ex 
cessive  rate  that  must  be  paid  for  necessities,  the 
circulation  would  stay  among  the  people." 

"  If  there  were  no  Breeds,"  retorted  Phillip, 
"  you  would  not  have  a  job.  Here  is  a  wireless  I 
wish  you  would  get  off  to  New  York." 

A  change  came  over  Blagg's  countenance.  His 
expression  had  been  an  inquiring  one,  almost  an 
eager  one;  now  it  suddenly  set  in  hard  lines.  He 
took  the  form  that  Phillip  handed  him  and  walked 
out  the  door.  As  he  went  he  was  whistling  The 
Marseillaise. 


CHAPTER  XI 

LILLIAN   BREED  ANNOUNCES   THAT   SHE  WISHES   TO 
BECOME  AN    EMPRESS 

EARLY  luncheon  at  Forest  Lakes  was  usually 
a  deadly  dull  function,  and  to-day  it  seemed 
more  so  than  ever.  A  preoccupation  seemed 
to  settle  upon  them  all.  Mrs.  Rensselaer  was  the 
only  placid  one  among  them,  she  being  engaged 
in  the  comfortable  occupation  of  sniffing  con 
temptuously  at  the  entire  family,  an  occupation  made 
easy  for  her  by  the  fact  that  Henry  Breed  had 
started  in  life  as  a  chore-boy.  Could  she  have  seen 
into  the  mind  of  any  of  the  five  others  at  the  table, 
Henry  and  Lillian  Breed's,  young  Kelvin's,  Doctor 
Zelphan's,  or  even  her  own  nephew's,  she  would 
have  been  startled  out  of  her  placidity  for  all  time, 
to  come.  In  three  of  them,  at  least,  there  burned 
and  seethed  ambitions  as  unlimited  as  the  blue  vault 
of  the  endless  sky,  ambitions  as  far-reaching  as  those 
which  drove  Napoleon  to  St.  Helena,  as  those  which 
made  Alexander  weep,  as  those  which  cast  Lucifer 
from  heaven;  and  each,  at  this  particular  moment, 

124 


LILLIAN  BREED  125 

had  concentrated  all  his  thought  upon  himself  and  his 
own  plan  of  supremacy.  Doctor  Zelphan's  thoughts 
were  different,  but  they  were  none  the  less  startling, 
and  young  Rensselaer  was  engaged  upon  vague 
dreams  of  military  conquest  and  glory.  At  that 
very  moment  he  was  wishing  for  a  war! 

Out  in  the  housekeeper's  dining-room  Blagg  and 
old  Fargus,  the  latter  Breed's  ancient  secretary,  re 
duced  through  years  of  hopeless  service  to  a  mere 
automaton,  lunched  in  equal  silence,  and  Fargus 
would  have  been  equally  startled  with  Mrs.  Rensse 
laer  if  he  could  have  seen  into  the  leaping  mind  of 
Blagg. 

At  Breed's  table  they  had  nearly  finished,  when 
Breed,  looking  up  from  the  bowl  of  mush  and  milk 
to  which  Zelphan  restricted  him  at  noon,  suddenly 
addressed  Phillip.  "  Kelvin,"  said  he,  "  if  you  had 
your  own  way  about  things  what  would  you  do?  " 

The  question  was  so  nearly  in  line  with  Kelvin's 
thoughts  that  it  startled  him,  yet  with-  a  whimsical 
smile  he  replied: 

"  I  would  make  myself  emperor  of  the  world." 

"Good!"  cried  Lillian.  "And  I -- 1  would  be 
empress." 

"  Lillian !  "  primly  protested  Mrs.  Rensselaer. 
"  You  don't  mean  anything,  I  know,  but  you  should 
be  no  more  bold  here,  even  in  jest,  than  abroad." 

"  How  do  you  know  I  don't  mean  it  ?  "  returned 


126  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Lillian,  with  an  earnestness  which  could  not  be  al 
together  concealed  by  her  raillery.  "If  Mr.  Kel 
vin  could  make  himself  emperor  of  the  world,  I 
would  exhaust  every  wile  known  to  femininity, 
every  stratagem  known  to  diplomacy,  every  force 
known  to  \varfare,  to  become  his  consort.  To  be 
empress  of  the  world,  to  have  life-and-death  do 
minion  over  every  living  creature,  to  hold  in  my 
hand  more  power  than  has  ever  been  possessed  by 
any  human  being  —  for  these  things  I  would  jeopar 
dize  my  happiness,  my  life,  my  very  soul." 

Phillip  glanced  across  at  her  with  more  interest 
than  he  had  yet  shown,  and  found,  with  a  thrill 
which  he  could  not  deny,  her  eyes  shining  into  his. 

"  Really,"  said  Mrs.  Rensselaer,  rising,  "  we  are 
becoming  very  dramatic." 

"  No,"  remarked  her  nephew  dryly,  getting  up 
from  his  chair,  "we  are  only  telling  our  right 
names." 

An  hour  or  so  later,  Phillip,  striving  to  gain  a 
comprehensive  grasp  upon  still  another  huge  pro 
ject  he  had  in  mind,  had  occasion  to  go  into  Blagg's 
room,  and  there  he  found  Lillian.  Blagg  was 
glowing. 

"  You  speak  of  dominion,"  Lillian  said  ani 
matedly,  conscious  of  her  power  over  the  gaunt 
operator,  and,  perhaps,  using  it  to  pique  Phillip; 
"  here  it  is,"  and  she  indicated  the  new  wireless 


LILLIAN  BREED  127 

apparatus,  which,  introduced  but  recently,  was 
rapidly  becoming  universal.  It  was  supplied  with 
keys,  like  a  type-writer,  and  differed  from  that  ma 
chine  in  only  one  essential  respect  —  the  paper  in 
it  was  upon  a  roll,  like  a  ticker  tape,  and  from  either 
side  of  the  contrivance  a  glass  tube  filled  with  a 
phosphorescent  greenish  light  ran  straight  up  to  the 
ceiling. 

"  With  all  instruments  thrown  into  key,  Mr. 
Blagg  can  reach  any  one  or  all  of  the  wireless  sta 
tions  on  the  face  of  the  globe,"  she  continued.  "  At 
his  finger-tips  is  all  the  world!  " 

As  she  spoke  the  greenish  phosphorescence  in  the 
tubes  began  to  glow  and  crackle  in  regular  waves, 
the  mechanism  of  the  type-writing  device  began  to 
click,  and  upon  the  tape  there  appeared  a  succes 
sion  of  "  M's."  Blagg  self-consciously  drew  out 
his  watch  and  held  it  while  he  watched  the  tape. 
The  machine  began  to  print  figures  beginning  with 
"  i  "  and  ending  with  "  10,"  then  one  sharp  click 
and  another  "  M  "  was  printed.  He  put  his  watch 
back  into  his  pocket. 

"  Noon  at  Washington,"  he  said.  "  I  am  not  a 
second  out  of  the  way."  Mechanically  he  reached 
out  to  the  keys  of  his  machine,  and  wrote  upon 
it  the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  in  apparent  idleness, 
from  "  A  "  to  "  G  "  and  back  again,  then  signed 
"  G.  B." 


128  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Does  that  idle  tampering  with  the  keys  carry 
any  place?"  asked  Kelvin. 

"  All  over  the  world,"  replied  Blagg  in  a  low 
voice,  then  suddenly  arousing  himself,  he  explained 
in  an  offhand  manner,  "  You  see,  every  day,  at  this 
hour,  Washington  time  is  sent  out,  not  originally  as 
a  correctant  of  time  all  over  the  world,  but  as  a 
test  of  all  machines." 

"  Those  letters,  then,  that  you  just  printed  ?  " 
asked  Kelvin  incredulously.  "  They  were  repeated, 
too,  on  every  wireless  machine  in  the  world  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Blagg  with  a  curious  air  of  smil 
ing  repression ;  "  every  operator  in  the  world  got 
that  message." 

It  was  upon  the  tip  of  Kelvin's  tongue  to  say  that 
it  was  a  very  trivial  and  inconsequential  thing  to 
do,  to  have  perhaps  ten  thousand  machines  repeat 
all  those  idle  letters  at  a  time  when  they  must  be 
interrupting  a  number  of  important  communica 
tions;  but,  after  all,  he  reflected,  that  was  the  busi 
ness  of  the  International  Wireless  Company. 

Kelvin  suddenly  heard  the  ring  of  a  buzzer  that 
sounded  like  his  own,  and  he  turned  to  leave  the 
room.  Lillian  started  out  with  him.  As  they 
neared  the  door  there  was  a  crackling  in  the  wire 
less  tubes  and  a  faint  click.  A  phosphorescent  glow 
flared  upon  the  walls  of  the  room.  Kelvin  turned, 
still  impressed  with  the  wonderful  reach  of  the  wire- 


LILLIAN  BREED  129 

less,  and  found  Blagg  looking,  not  at  the  tape  of 
the  machine,  but  at  him,  with  the  utmost  ma 
levolence. 

Three  hours  later  old  Fargus  came  shuffling  into 
Kelvin's  room.  "  Mr.  Breed  wishes  me  to  tell  you 
that  Mr.  Rollins  has  arrived,  and  .that  he  would 
like  to  see  you  in  the  library." 

In  that  dim  old  room  Kelvin  found  Rollins  sit 
ting  uncompromisingly  upright,  his  lips  compressed, 
his  jaw  set,  his  eyes  stern.  Breed  sat  easily  back 
in  his  chair.  Kelvin  was  struck  once  more,  as  he 
had  been  a  score  of  times,  with  the  idea  that,  no 
matter  what  situation  might  arise,  Breed  was  the 
psychological  master  of  it. 

Rollins  brightened  at  the  sight  of  Kelvin,  and 
arose  at  once  to  shake  hands  with  him.  "  Glad  to 
see  you,  Kelvin,"  he  said,  but  there  was  a  certain 
amount  of  reserve  in  his  greeting,  for  he  did  not 
altogether  approve  of  Kelvin.  There  was,  more 
over,  a  certain  sternness  about  Rollins  which  never 
varied,  a  sternness  of  purpose  that  went  well  with 
his  appearance  of  immaculate  cleanness.  He  was 
a  smooth-faced  man  of  under  forty,  with  unusually 
frank  eyes  which  inspired  trust  at  once. 

"  Mr.  Rollins,  without  any  preliminary  conversa 
tion,  has  just  told  me  that  he  is  not  here  for  a 
compromise,"  Breed  interposed  upon  their  greeting. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  hear  that,  Rollins,"  said  Kelvin. 


130  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  I  have  been  going  over  the  situation  pretty  thor 
oughly,  and  am  willing  to  admit  that  if  you  fight 
us  it  will  annoy  us  somewhat;  but  it  will  be  a  los 
ing  venture  for  you." 

"  I  don't  think  it,"  returned  Rollins,  his  face 
hardening.  "  I  am  willing  to  pit  my  reputation 
with  the  public  against  Mr.  Breed's  at  any  time." 

"  Why  make  it  a  matter  of  reputation,  Rollins?  " 
suggested  Breed.  "  Why  not  make  it  a  matter  of 
self-interest?  I  don't  mind  being  frank  with  you, 
because  subterfuge  would  be  of  no  use.  I  want, 
and  mean  to  have,  control  of  the  railroads;  you  want 
the  same  thing.  I  think  we  both  could  be  satis 
fied.  I  consider  you  the  best  railroad  man  in  the 
United  States  to-day,  and  I  want  you  to  manage 
the  consolidated  lines.  Let  us  put  our  stock  and 
influence  together,  and  we  will  both  attain  our 
ends." 

"  Impossible,"  declared  Rollins.  "  Our  ends  are 
so  radically  different.  I  am  not  entirely  a  philan 
thropist,  but  here  is  a  case  where  I  look  upon  philan 
thropy  as  good  business.  Railroads  have  been  con 
ducted  so  exclusively  for  the  profit,  not  of  their 
stock-holders,  but  of  their  control,  that  they  have 
overreached  themselves  in  that  very  aim.  An  en 
tirely  different  system  will  do  away  with  the  neces 
sity  for  rebates,  allow  the  establishment  of  a  flat 
freight-rate,  render  the  roads  more  efficient,  en- 


LILLIAN  BREED  131 

able  them  to  carry  more  load  with  less  horse-power, 
give  better  service  in  every  way,  and  insure  some 
thing  that  has  never  been  attained  in  the  history  of 
railroads  —  absolute  safety  to  the  public  as  well  as 
reasonable  dividends." 

"  Precisely  my  own  aims,"  stated  Breed.  "  I  am 
perfectly  willing  that  you  should  carry  out  your 
ideas." 

"I  don't  believe  you,"  retorted  Rollins  bluntly; 
"  nor  could  any  amount  of  persuasion  on  your  part 
convince  me.  I  know  your  record  too  well.  You 
were  seventy-eight  years  old  your  last  birthday,  and 
for  seventy-eight  years  you  have  worked  exclusively 
for  Henry  Breed.  It  is  not  likely  that  you  will 
change  at  this  late  day."  He  turned  abruptly  to 
Phillip.  "  Kelvin,"  he  demanded,  "  do  you  believe 
what  he  says  ?  " 

Phillip  was  taken  aback  by  the  suddenness  of  the 
question  and  hesitated. 

Breed  laughed.  "  It  is  one  of  Mr.  Kelvin's  un 
fortunate  traits  to  be  truthful,"  he  observed,  "  and 
to  save  him  embarrassment  I  would  not  press  that 
question,  Mr.  Rollins.  Instead,  we  might  as  well 
come  distinctly  to  business.  I  want  you  for  my 
manager,  and  I  mean  to  have  you.  I  offer  you  the 
opportunity  now,  directly  and  for  the  last  time. 
Pool  your  stock  with  mine,  giving  me  control  and 
you  management.  Do  you  accept  that  ?  " 


1 32  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  No,"  said  Rollins. 

"  Then  I  will  take  control,"  returned  Breed.  "If 
I  do,  and  offer  you  the  general  management,  will 
you  accept  it  then  ?  " 

"If  you  gain  absolute  control,"  said  Rollins  with 
a  short  laugh,  "  and  if,  after  you  have  done  so,  you 
offer  me  absolute  management,  with  a  free  hand, 
then  I  shall  believe  you." 

As  Rollins  rose,  apparently  considering  the  inter 
view  terminated,  Breed  rang  a  bell  and  it  was  Elsie 
White  who  answered  it. 

"  This  is  Mr.  Rollins,  Elsie,"  said  Breed.  "  Show 
him  to  the  suite  next  to  Kelvin's.  You  can't  get 
back  to-night  with  any  comfort,  except  by  auto,  Rol 
lins,  but  we  shall  be  very  glad  to  have  you  as  our 
guest." 

Rollins  had  intended  to  refuse  this  offer,  but  he 
looked  at  Elsie  White  and  accepted.  He  was  a 
man  who  owed  all  his  success  to  his  faculty  of  in 
stantaneous  decision,  and  at  the  door  of  his  apart 
ments  he  engaged  Elsie  in  conversation  —  about 
Forest  Lakes  —  as  long  as  he  could,  in  decency. 

After  Rollins  had  gone,  Breed  looked  at  Kelvin 
quizzically.  "  I  suppose  you  have  a  solution  for 
our  problem?"  he  suggested. 

"  I  am  waiting  to  hear  yours,"  returned  Phillip. 

"  There  is  only  one  feasible  way,"  declared  Breed 
promptly.  "  We  must  subsidize  the  press." 


LILLIAN  BREED  133 

Kelvin  did  not  laugh  outright,  but  he  came  near 
it.  "You  have  tried  that,  haven't  you?"  he 
ventured. 

"  Only  in  a  minor  degree,"  declared  Breed,  "  but 
found  no  trouble  about  it." 

"  No,"  admitted  Phillip,  "  you  had  no  trouble 
about  it.  That  is,  you  wished  to  create  a  certain 
amount  of  sentiment,  or  rather  a  certain  dispute  of 
sentiment.  When  your  agents  found  they  could  not 
influence  certain  papers,  they  took  others,  and  they 
took  the  easiest  ones,  and  the  ones  least  worth  while ; 
but  here  you  are  proposing  an  entirely  different 
proposition.  You  want  to  obtain  control  of  all  the 
railroads  in  the  United  States.  Their  ramifications 
extend  into  every  state  and  territory  and  include 
nearly  one  quarter  of  a  million  miles  of  track.  Re 
member  that  the  majority  stock-holders  of  practic 
ally  every  one  of  these  roads  are  the  public.  In 
order  to  reach  them  you  must  completely  control  al 
most  every  paper  in  the  land ;  and  even  you  have  not 
enough  money.  Even  if  they  were  all  for  sale, 
which  they  are  not,  the  amount  necessary  to  ac 
quire  them  would  run  into  the  billions.  More  of 
them  than  you  think  are  not  upon  the  market,  and 
the  surest  way  to  antagonize  them  is  to  attempt  to 
purchase  their  principles.  You  can  not  subsidize  the 
press  of  the  United  States.  Count  that  as  final." 

Breed    nodded.     He    remembered    one    or    two 


i34  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

disastrous  experiments  during  his  early  operations. 
"  What,  then,  do  you  propose?  "  he  asked.  "  From 
your  attitude  you  evidently  have  in  mind  a  plan  of 
action." 

"  I  am  not  quite  ready  to  lay  it  before  you,"  re 
plied  Phillip.  "  It  still  requires  some  figuring." 

"  I  suppose  you  will  let  me  know  when  you  have 
quite  made  up  your  mind  about  it,"  Breed  sug 
gested  with  a  trace  of  sarcasm. 

"  Yes,"  admitted  Phillip  calmly. 

Breed  frowned.  "  Don't  get  too  high-handed, 
young  man,"  he  warned.  "  Remember  that,  after 
all,  I  am  providing  the  weight  which  gives  our  plans 
momentum." 

"  Mr.  Breed,"  said  Phillip,  rising,  "  suppose,  as 
it  would  be  certain  to  come  up  again,  that  we  dis 
pose  of  this  phase  of  the  matter  at  once.  Any  time 
you  object  to  my  methods  tell  me  to  go,  and  it  won't 
require  your  private  militia  to  put  me  out  of  the 
grounds.  I  was  worth  two  and  a  half  million  dol 
lars  when  I  came  to  you,  and  this  you  can  not  take 
from  me.  I  am  here  with  you,  however,  because  I 
want  to  use  the  enormous  power  of  your  money  for 
purposes  of  my  own.  Aside  from  these  purposes, 
which  are  not  a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  me,  I 
assure  you,  I  don't  need  you  or  your  money." 

Breed  looked  at  him  a  moment,  then  lay  back  in 
his  chair  and  rubbed  his  hands  together  and 


LILLIAN  BREED  135 

chuckled  until  it  threw  him  into  a  fit  of  coughing. 
"  And  in  the  meantime,"  he  gasped,  struggling  for 
breath,  "  I  suppose  you  intend  to  render  value  re- 
ceived.  Go  ahead,  my  boy,  and  see  who  gets  the 
most  out  of  it.  I  wouldn't  part  with  you  for  any 
thing.  This  two  million  and  a  half  of  yours,  by 
the  way ;  is  it  in  cash  ?  " 

"  No,"  replied  Phillip;  "it  is  in  highly  profitable 
oil-,  coal-,  and  iron-lands,  into  the  extension  of 
which  my  profits  are  going  as  fast  as  I  am  making 
them.  I  hypothecated  them  in  order  to  get  in  on 
our  Stock  Exchange  deal,  but  immediately  removed 
that  encumbrance  as  soon  as  the  deal  was  concluded. 
So  far  as  the  cash  is  concerned,  I  would  rather  you 
should  have  it  than  I;  it  has  so  much  more  weight 
when  thrown  into  one  pile." 

Again  Henry  Breed  lay  back  and  chuckled,  and 
he  followed  Phillip  out  of  the  room  with  extremely 
friendly  eyes. 


CHAPTER  XII 

A     MAD     TWILIGHT,     IN     WHICH     SEVERAL     PEOPLE 
RETURN  TO  BRUTAL  FIRST   PRINCIPLES 

MRS.  RENSSELAER,  always  drowsy 
after  a  meal,  and  always  fighting  off  that 
drowsiness  for  reasons  not  entirely  un 
connected  with  embonpoint,  sat  upon  the  balcony 
outside  her  own  apartments,  after  the  early  dinner 
customary  at  Forest  Lakes.  The  level  rays  of  the 
low-lying  sun  shot  long  streams  of  red  light  through 
the  trees.  The  hush  of  coming  twilight  was  in  the 
air,  and  the  cries  of  the  sleepy  birds  as,  swift 
winged,  they  sought  their  nests,  gave  Mrs.  Rensse- 
laer  the  fight  of  her  existence  to  keep  awake. 

A  loud  guffaw,  ending  in  a  shrill  falsetto  and 
echoed  by  a  high  soprano  laugh,  rich  and  mellow, 
aroused  her.  From  the  rear  of  the  house  emerged 
black  Sam  and  Lucy,  the  colored  kitchen-maid,  who 
cut  across  from  the  kitchen-grounds  and  started  up 
the  northwest  path,  pushing  each  other,  dancing  and 
cavorting  over  the  roadway  like  a  pair  of  nervous 
monkeys,  as  Mrs.  Rensselaer  expressed  it  to  herself. 
Such  loose  care  of  the  servants  was  most  repre- 

136 


A  MAD  TWILIGHT  137 

hensible  in  Mrs.  Rensselaer's  mind,  and  she  meant 
to  speak  sharply  to  the  housekeeper  about  it.  She 
was  highly  indignant  that  they  should  be  allowed  to 
wander  off  in  that  way.  She  had  half  a  notion  to 
call  to  them,  and  would  have  done  so  except  for  her 
distaste  of  personal  conflict  with  such  animals. 

New  voices  claimed  her  attention  and  awakened 
her  still  more.  She  leaned  forward  and  peered  over 
the  edge  of  the  balcony.  Young  Rensselaer  and 
Elsie  White  came  strolling  from  toward  the  back 
of  the  house,  talking  quite  earnestly,  and  struck  out 
into  the  southwest  roadway.  Mrs.  Rensselaer  stif 
fened.  It  was  perfectly  disgraceful  of  Herbert  so 
far  to  forget  his  station  in  life.  There  was  no 
telling  what  influence  this  designing  young  person 
might  bring  to  bear  upon  him!  If  Herbert  had  not 
intelligence  enough  to  watch  out  for  himself,  some 
one  ought  to  look  after  him.  The  boy  was  throw 
ing  away  the  chance  of  a  lifetime,  here  under  the 
same  roof  with  the  richest  girl  in  the  world. 

Still  new  voices  smote  upon  her  ear.  From  the 
front  porch  Phillip  and  Lillian  stepped  down  and 
strode  up  the  northwest  path,  Lillian  clinging  to 
Phillip's  arm  and  chattering  volubly,  even  excitedly. 
Mrs.  Rensselaer,  estimable  lady,  arose  at  once. 

"  How  indiscreet !  "  she  murmured.  "  I  must  see 
that  the  dear  child  is  instantly  chaperoned." 

She  went  quickly  down  the  stairs,  hastily  selected 


138  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

a  light  wrap  from  the  hall-tree,  and  hurried  out. 
To  her  annoyance,  however,  she  caught  the  lace  of 
her  wrap  in  the  catch  of  the  screen-door,  and  was 
occupied  some  minutes  in  releasing  it.  When  she 
had  finally  loosed  herself,  Lillian  and  Phillip  had 
so  complete  a  start  of  her  that  they  were  lost  to 
view.  For  perhaps  twenty  minutes  she  followed 
them,  marveling  how  swiftly  the  twilight  had  set 
tled  down,  and  beginning  to  feel  an  eeriness  which 
made  its  first  impression  in  compelling  her  to  draw 
her  wrap  more  closely  about  her.  She  was  just 
upon  the  point  of  turning  back,  torn  between  her 
fear  and  her  desire  to  prevent  Phillip  and  Lillian 
from  coming  to  some  understanding  that  might  de 
stroy  her  hopes  for  her  nephew,  when,  at  a  turn 
in  the  road,  she  saw  them  under  the  dim  avenue  of 
trees,  just  ahead  of  her. 

Even  as  she  looked  she  saw  Lillian  suddenly  turn 
and  throw  her  arms  about  Phillip.  For  a  moment 
she  stopped  to  gasp,  and  then  hurried  on  with  an 
intention  born  of  anger.  What  had  really  happened 
was  that  Lillian  had  stepped  upon  a  loose,  round 
stone  and  had  slightly  turned  her  foot.  Instantly 
she  had  wheeled  and  clutched  at  Phillip  for  support, 
clasping  him  by  the  arm  and  throwing  the  other  up 
over  his  shoulder;  and  then,  the  wrenched  ankle 
forgotten,  she  had  clung  to  him  in  ecstasy  for  a  full 


A  MAD  TWILIGHT  139 

moment  which  seemed  an  age.  The  catch  in  her 
voice  had  become  a  single  sob. 

When  Mrs.  Rensselaer  reached  them  she  found 
Phillip  erect.  He  had  done  no  more  than  to  clasp 
Lillian  as  he  might  to  steady  her,  but  he  was  pale 
and  trembling,  though  this  she  could  not  see  in  the 
darkness. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  Mrs.  Rensselaer 
coldly;  "I  seem  to  be  interrupting  something  of 
an  entirely  personal  nature." 

"  Appearances  are  deceitful,"  replied  Phillip, 
laughing,  and  concealing  the  tremulousness  of  his 
voice  as  best  he  could.  "  I  fancy  that  Miss  Lillian 
has  sprained  her  ankle,  and  I  think  that  she  is  faint." 

"If  Miss  Lillian  were  to  choose  less  dim  paths 
for  her  strolls  she  would  not  be  in  such  danger," 
quoth  Mrs.  Rensselaer  dryly.  "  As  her  chaperon,  I 
must  ask  both  of  you  to  be  a  little  more  circumspect 
in  the  future ;  and  as  her  friend,  I  must  return  with 
her  to  the  house,  and  see  what  we  can  do  for  that 
sprained  ankle.  Come  with  me,  Lillian." 

She  led  the  girl  away  unresisting.  "  Her  limp  was 
slight,  but  she  tottered  as  she  walked ;  her  hand,  as 
Mrs.  Rensselaer  took  it  and  put  it  in  her  arm,  was 
flaccid  and  cold  with  moisture,  and  for  the  first  time 
in  her  life  she  obeyed  every  suggestion  of  Mrs. 
Rensselaer's  as  if  she  had  been  a  child.  Mrs. 


140  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Rensselaer  looked  back,  expecting  Phillip  to  come 
with  them  and  offer  to  assist  Lillian  home,  but  he 
stood  in  the  same  spot,  numbed,  not  even  thinking. 
His  mind  was  a  blank  except  for  the  tumult  of  emo 
tions  that  seethed  within  him. 

He  had  a  rude  awakening  from  this  attitude. 
Mrs.  Rensselaer  and  Lillian  had  no  sooner  turned 
the  bend  in  the  road  than  a  tall,  gaunt  form  sprang 
from  among  the  shrubbery  at  the  roadside.  Strong, 
lank  hands  clutched  Phillip  by  the  shoulders  and 
shook  him,  and  a  lean  face  with  prominent  cheek 
bones  confronted  his  own  closely,  while  a  pair  of 
eyes,  phosphorescent  in  the  dimness,  like  a  cat's, 
blazed  into  his. 

"  Let  her  alone ! "  hissed  the  voice  of  Blagg. 
"  You  don't  care  for  her.  Let  her  alone !  " 

"Take  your  hands  from  my  shoulders!"  com 
manded  Phillip  firmly,  offering  as  yet  no  resistance 
except  in  his  tenseness  of  muscle. 

"  Let  her  alone,  I  say !  "  repeated  Blagg  fiercely, 
and,  spasmodically  tightening  his  clutch,  he  once 
more  tried  to  shake  Phillip,  but  this  time  shook  his 
own  frailer  body;  for  Phillip  had  stiffened  himself. 

"  I'll  give  you  just  one  more  second  of  warn 
ing,"  cautioned  Phillip,  drawing  up  his  arms  and 
clenching  his  fists. 

Neither  one  had  time  for  parley,  however,  for  a 
huge  black  shape  hurled  itself  upon  Blagg,  like  a 


A  MAD  TWILIGHT  141 

whirlwind,  huge  black  fingers  seized  him  by  the 
throat,  and  a  huge  black  body  bore  him  to  the 
ground.  There  was  a  rattle  in  Blagg's  throat ;  above 
his  face  was  bent  the  face  of  big  Sam,  distorted  al 
most  out  of  all  semblance  to  humanity,  and  he  was 
snarling  like  a  wild  beast,  displaying  huge  yellow 
teeth ;  his  eyes  had  suddenly  gone  bloodshot,  and  he 
was  shaking  his  head  from  side  to  side,  as  the  ringers 
of  his  enormous  hands  kneaded  themselves  more  and 
more  into  the  throat  of  Blagg. 

The  whole  thing  had  occupied  but  an  instant,  and 
yet  there  was  such  imminent  danger  that  Kelvin 
sprang  forward  in  fright. 

"  Sam !  "  he  cried.  "  Sam !  Sam !  Sam !  "  he 
repeated  over  and  over,  shouting  and  screaming  it 
into  his  ear,  grabbing  his  shoulders  and  pulling  him 
back;  but  Sam  neither  felt  nor  heard.  In  despera 
tion,  to  save  Blagg's  life,  Phillip  hauled  back  and 
gave  the  negro  a  resounding  kick  in  the  side.  With 
a  loud  aspirated  "  Huh !  "  Sam  suddenly  relaxed, 
but  still  his  heavy  body  hung  poised  over  that  of 
Blagg,  with  his  weight  upon  the  man's  throat ;  now, 
however,  it  was  no  task  for  Kelvin,  stooping  down, 
to  topple  Sam  over.  As  he  did  so  Lucy  came  flying 
from  the  hillside,  and,  bending  over  Sam,  let  loose 
upon  Kelvin  such  a  flood  of  vituperation  as  he  had 
never  heard  before,  at  the  same  time  pillowing  Sam's 
head  upon  her  arm.  Sam,  recovering  himself 


142  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

with  marvelous  quickness,  stopped  her  flow  of  lan 
guage  by  the  simple  expedient  of  clapping  a  broad 
palm  over  her  mouth  and  holding  her  head  against 
that  gag  by  pressing  his  other  hand  at  the  back  of 
her  neck;  and  for  once,  Lucy,  as  she  scrambled  to 
her  feet,  taken  by  surprise  in  the  quick  succession 
of  events,  was  overcome  and  had  no  words. 

Phillip,  in  the  meantime,  had  bent  over  Blagg  and 
loosened  his  collar,  and  was  fanning  him.  "  Sam," 
said  he  sharply,  "  there  is  a  spring  down  there  in 
the  ravine;  hurry  and  get  some  water  in  your  hat." 

"  Ah  hope  Ah  ain't  done  gone  an'  done  no  dam 
age  to  'im,  Mistuh  Phillip,"  said  Sam  contritely. 
"  Ah  suah  done  f ohgot  when  to  leave  go ;  but  Ah 
jes'  cain'  stan'  to  see  no  one  tetch  yo',  Mistuh 
Phillip." 

"  Hurry  and  get  that  water,"  ordered  Phillip. 
"  Remember,  Sam,  next  time,  to  give  me  a  chance 
to  handle  my  own  difficulties." 

"  Yas,  sah,"  said  Sam  as  he  plunged  over  the 
bank. 

He  brought  water,  but  it  took  some  time  to  revive 
Blagg.  When  he  rose  to  his  feet  there  was  a  little 
trickle  of  blood  running  from  the  corner  of  his 
mouth,  and  Phillip  offered  him  a  handkerchief. 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Blagg,  waving  it  away.  He 
was  quite  himself,  and  refused  any  assistance.  He 
started  toward  the  house,  wiping  his  lips  with  his 


A  MAD  TWILIGHT  143 

own  handkerchief  and  feeling  his  neck.  He  stag 
gered  for  a  few  paces,  then  squared  his  shoulders 
and  walked  sturdily  away. 

Phillip  looked  at  Sam  and  Lucy,  standing  together 
abashed  before  him,  with  huge  distaste.  "  We're  a 
pack  of  wildcats,"  he  said.  "  But,  after  all,"  and 
he  looked  about  him  at  the  darkening  woods,  "  we 
are  in  the  right  place  for  it.  Back  to  nature,  back 
to  savagery !  " 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SUMNER    ROLLINS    ACCEPTS    THE    DICTATORSHIP    OE 
THE  LARGEST  EMPIRE  IN  THE  WORLD 

PHILLIP  having  seen  Rollins  safely  away, 
walked  into  Breed's  study  confidently  the 
next  morning.  "  It  is  going  to  cost  you 
something  to  get  those  proxies,  whether  you  at 
tempt  your  impossible  plan  of  subsidizing  the  news 
papers  or  whether  you  go  about  it  in  some  other 
way,"  he  declared. 

"  I  am  quite  willing  that  it  should,"  replied  Breed. 
"  I  expect  it  to  cost  me  a  great  many  millions,  even 
if  a  plan  can  be  devised  by  which  we  can  manage  it." 

"  I  can't  tell  you  how  to  subsidize  the  newspapers, 
but  I  know  how  to  subsidize  the  public,"  said  Phil 
lip  with  a  smile,  and  handed  Breed  a  sheet  of  paper. 

Breed  glanced  at  it  and  elevated  his  eyebrows, 
then  he  whistled.  "  This  is  going  to  cost  an  enor 
mous  amount  of  money,"  he  declared. 

"  It  would  seem  so  at  first,"  admitted  Phillip ; 
"  but  here  are  the  figures,"  and  he  handed  Breed 
another  sheet  of  paper. 

Breed  studied  this  latter  long  and  earnestly,  then 

144 


SUMNER  ROLLINS  ACCEPTS       145 

he  rose  and  gave  Kelvin  his  hand.  "  Young  man," 
he  exclaimed,  "  if  Heaven  had  only  blessed  me  with 
a  son  or  a  grandson  like  you !  " 

"  It  is  a  pity  that  your  granddaughter  was  not 
born  a  boy,"  suggested  Phillip. 

Breed  shook  his  head  and  sighed.  "  It  is  a  gift 
that  she  was  not,"  he  replied.  "  That  is  the  only 
family  luck  for  which  I  have  to  be  thankful.  No 
human  being  susceptible  to  emotion  or  sentiment 
can  ever  rise  to  great  achievement !  " 

Phillip  colored  slightly,  and  Breed's  sharp  eyes 
caught  the  flush.  He  raised  a  warning  ringer. 

"  Remember,  young  man,"  said  he,  "  that  it  is  in 
youth  these  things  must  be  fought.  Were  it  not 
for  that,  old  age  would  have  no  chance  in  this  world 
for  preferment.  In  the  meantime,  go  ahead  with 
your  scheme  of  subsidy.  At  what  time  does 
your  plan  include  making  the  attempt  for  proxies?  " 

"  Within  two  weeks,"  replied  Kelvin.  "  If  you 
will  excuse  me  I  will  put  this  on  the  wire  at  once." 

With  some  curiosity,  remembering  the  events  of 
the  night  before,  he  went  into  Blagg's  room.  Blagg 
looked  up  as  if  nothing  had  ever  happened,  though 
the  effort  was  hard  to  convey  in  view  of  the  black- 
and-blue  marks  on  his  neck. 

"  Good  morning,"  said  Kelvin,  equally  willing  to 
ignore  what  was  finished.  "  Here  is  some  stuff  I 
wish  to  get  off." 


146  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Blagg  looked  it  over,  then  read  it  more  carefully 
and  nodded  his  head.  "  This  is  your  scheme,"  he 
declared  familiarly.  "  Of  course  there  is  an  ul 
terior  motive  behind  it,  but  even  so,  this  is  an  act 
that  will  work  real  good  to  the  people,  and  it  will 
operate  in  Breed's  favor  when  the  day  of  account 
ing  comes." 

"  The  day  of  accounting?  "  repeated  Phillip. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Blagg.  "  There  is  always  a  day 
of  reckoning,  isn't  there?  " 

"  Possibly,"  agreed  Phillip  dryly.  "  In  the  mean 
time,  you  might  get  the  message  away." 

He  was  about  to  leave  the  room,  when  Blagg 
called  to  him : 

"  By  the  way,  Mr.  Kelvin,  I  hope  you  will  not 
hold  last  night  too  much  against  me.  We  had 
some  wine  at  dinner  in  the  housekeeper's  dining- 
room,  and  I  broke  my  rule  and  drank  some  of  it. 
It  affects  me  too  strongly.  I  shall  have  to  leave  it 
alone.  I  am  very  sorry  that  atrocious  occurrence 
happened." 

"  So  am  I,"  agreed  Phillip.  "  Since  you  had  the 
worst  of  the  bargain,  however,  I  shall  not  exact  any 
painful  apologies." 

Blagg  made  a  wry  face.  Whether  it  was  a  smile 
or  not,  Phillip  could  not  tell,  but  he  smiled  to  him 
self  as  he  returned  to  his  own  office.  The  excuse 
that  Blagg  had  been  drinking  was  too  transparent 


SUMNER  ROLLINS  ACCEPTS        147 

for  credence,  nor  could  he  comprehend  the  passions 
which  had  led  the  operator  so  thoroughly  to  lose 
his  balance.  Without  self-urged  emotions  himself, 
to  any  appreciable  degree,  he  could  not  understand 
them  in  others,  but  nevertheless  he  was  resolved 
that  Blagg  should  have  no  more  cause  for  such  in 
sane  exhibitions;  this  not  because  of  Blagg,  but 
because  of  himself.  The  incident  of  the  night  be 
fore  had  shown  him  that  he  had  a  trace  of  weak 
ness  which  must  be  guarded,  if  he  was  to  carry  out 
the  limitless  ambition  that  was  in  his  mind. 

For  the  ensuing  month  there  was  a  new  order 
of  things.  Phillip  had  never  sought  Lillian,  but 
now  he  avoided  her  persistently.  Young  Rensse- 
laer,  having  passed  some  bad  half-hours  with  his 
aunt,  compromised  for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  de 
voted  himself  to  Lillian,  who  made  matters  easy  for 
him  had  he  really  desired  to  follow  out  his  aunt's 
wishes,  for  she  strove  now  to  make  Phillip  jealous. 
She  was  wasting  her  time  in  that  effort,  for  Phillip 
had  in  hand  what  were  to  him  much  graver  matters. 

The  propaganda  he  had  put  forth  soon  began  to 
bear  results.  Breed  would  not  say  how  well 
pleased  he  was  with  the  outcome  as  clippings  began 
to  pour  in  from  the  bureau  of  his  New  Jersey  of 
fices,  but  secretly  he  was  delighted,  and  daily  he 
went  down  into  the  vault  and  gloated  over  the 
money  that  was  there.  Meanwhile  Phillip  delved 


148  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

into  fresh  statistics,  covering  wider  and  still  wider 
plans  of  which  Breed  knew  nothing  —  and  Blagg 
practised  upon  his  combination  lock ! 

The  name  of  Breed  wras  now  upon  every  lip.  It 
had  always  been,  for  that  matter,  but  in  terms  of 
execration.  Now  that  sentiment  was  tempered. 
There  were  thousands  of  columns  of  editorials 
printed  about  him  and  his  great  philanthropic  move 
ment.  Fully  half  the  papers  declared  that  he  had 
an  ulterior  motive;  a  large  number  of  them  found 
the  true  one,  and  lost  no  time  in  pointing  it  out  with 
the  utmost  scorn;  but  the  great  fact  remained  that 
the  boon  which  he  had  promised  the  people  had 
gone  into  immediate  effect,  and  that  every  man  in 
the  United  States  reaped  an  immediate  and  direct 
benefit.  A  complete  revulsion  of  feeling  toward 
Breed  set  in.  In  the  customary  haste  with  which 
the  American  public  turns  upon  its  own  opinions, 
Breed  became  a  saint  overnight :  in  his  old  age  he 
had  developed  a  large  heart ;  he  was  bent  upon  mak 
ing  his  peace  with  his  Creator;  he  was  now  restor 
ing  to  the  public  a  part  of  the  inheritance  of  which 
he  had  so  enormously  robbed  it;  he  was  really,  at 
bottom,  and  always  had  been,  a  great  and  good  and 
generous  man!  Were  not  the  poor,  as  well  as  the 
rich,  now  his  daily  beneficiaries  ? 

Phillip's    plan    had    been    very    simple.     It   was 


SUMNER  ROLLINS  ACCEPTS       149 

merely   the    issuance   to    the   newspapers    of   this 
proclamation : 

Beginning  to-morrow,  the  price  of  bread,  of  the 
same  weight  and  quality  as  heretofore,  will  be  re 
duced,  throughout  the  United  States,  from  five  to 
four  cents  a  loaf.  This  price  will  continue  until 
a  committee,  to  be  selected  by  the  public,  can  de 
termine  from  my  books  and  records  the  actual  cost 
of  bread  delivered  to  the  consumer.  Immediately 
upon  that  investigation  bread  will  be  provided  at 
actual  cost.  I  have  made  my  fortune,  and  desire 
no  more.  From  this  day  on,  my  bread- factories 
shall  be  run  in  the  interest  of  the  public  alone. 

HENRY  BREED. 

There  it  was  —  bread  at  cost !  It  was  the  most 
tremendous  sensation  that  had  ever  been  given  space 
in  the  papers  since  Breed  had  completed  his  con 
solidation  of  all  the  cereal  food  industries  in  the 
United  States.  No  argument  could  hold  against 
that.  It  was  an  argument  which  was  additionally 
clenched  every  time  a  man  bought  six  loaves  of 
bread  for  a  quarter  and  received  a  penny  in  change. 

At  exactly  the  psychological  moment  Phillip 
launched  his  campaign  for  the  control  of  railroad 
stocks,  and  for  thirty  days  there  waged  the  great 


150  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

battle  of  the  proxies,  a  battle  no  less  bitter  because 
silent,  no  less  ferocious  because  unseen,  no  less  re 
lentless  because  there  was  no  bloodshed. 

The  forces  allied  with  Rollins  themselves  at 
tempted  publicity.  They  sent  out  appeal  after  ap 
peal  to  the  conservative  investors,  that  enormous 
army  of  minor  stock-holders  who  were  the  real  con 
trolling  interest,  if  they  once  could  be  massed,  of 
all  the  roads;  they  sent  arguments,  statistics,  and, 
finally,  broadside  after  broadside  of  attacks,  per 
sonal  and  economic,  dignified  and  scurrilous,  against 
Breed.  But  against  their  publicity  Breed  had  put 
an  enormous  practical  benefit ;  against  their  appeals 
he  had  put  an  enormous  practical  benefit;  against 
their  attacks  he  had  put  an  enormous  practical 
benefit;  and  the  tide  of  public  favor,  springing  not 
from  the  printed  pages  of  the  morning  and  after 
noon  papers,  but  from  lip  to  lip,  set  in  so  strongly 
in  his  direction  that  it  reached  every  investor. 
Bread  at  four  cents!  Later  at  cost! 

To  the  victor  belongs  the  spoils,  and  the  spoils 
of  this  war  were  the  proxies.  Breed  got  the  prox 
ies,  and  through  personal  representatives  from  his 
New  Jersey  offices  he  walked  into  one  meeting  after 
another  with  a  majority  of  stock.  He  had  suc 
ceeded,  through  Kelvin,  in  that  apparently  impos 
sible  dream  of  every  railroad  man  since  Stephenson 
invented  the  steam-engine  —  the  concentration  of 


SUMNER  ROLLINS  ACCEPTS       151 

every  railroad  in  the  United  States  under  one  man 
agement.  Then  he  sent  for  Rollins. 

"  .Well,  I  kept  my  word,"  said  Breed.  "  I  told 
you  I  meant  to  have  control  of  every  mile  of  rail 
road  in  the  United  States,  and  now  I  have  it.  I 
have  sent  for  you  to  take  over  their  management." 

Rollins  was  pale,  and  there  were  dark  rings  under 
his  eyes.  "  I  don't  know  if  I  want  it.  There  is 
only  one  condition  under  which  I  could  accept,  and 
it  would  be  folly  in  me  to  expect  you  to  grant  me 
that." 

"  You  might  mention  it,"  observed  Breed  dryly. 

"  The  condition  is  that  I  may  do  as  I  see  fit,  may 
work  absolutely  unhampered.  Man,"  he  suddenly 
burst  forth,  "  you  don't  know  how  many  years  I 
have  dreamed  of  this!  It  has  been  the  ambition  of 
my  life  to  put  this  great  public  utility  upon  the 
plane  of  its  proper  relation  to  the  public." 

"  That  is  my  own  dream,"  Breed  declared. 

Rollins  shrugged  his  shoulders  incredulously. 

"You  don't  believe  it?"  inquired  Breed. 

"  I  find  belief  difficult,"  replied  Rollins.  "  More 
over,  I  had  imagined  that  Mr.  Kelvin  here  was  to 
have  some  say  in  the  matter  of  management." 

Breed  smiled  and  looked  at  Phillip.  "  I  have 
larger  work  for  him,"  he  said. 

"  Larger !  "  exclaimed  Rollins.  "  Can  there  be 
anything  bigger  than  to  combine  a  quarter  of  a 


152  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

million  miles  of  railroad,  every  foot  of  transporta 
tion  highway  in  the  United  States,  under  one 
economic  head,  eliminating  graft  and  waste  and  put 
ting  them  all  upon  a  working  basis  of  legitimate 
profit  and  public  safety?  " 

Breed  waved  his  hand.  "  Much  larger,"  said  he. 
"  This  is  only  an  incident.  I  wish  you  would  tell 
me  just  what  reforms  you  propose  instituting,  Mr. 
Rollins." 

"  First  of  all,"  said  Rollins  earnestly,  reassured, 
"  I  would  secure  for  every  through  line  one-hun- 
dred-and-twenty-pound,  open-hearth  steel  rails, 
made  in  new  mills  from  larger  ingots,  with  the 
cones  of  impurity  cast  entirely  aside  and  the  com 
pact  residue  kneaded  into  a  proper  consistency  by 
an  entirely  new  system  of  rolls.  There  are  other 
things  that  need  to  be  done  —  the  establishment  of 
perfect  block  systems,  of  automatic  brakes  and 
other  accident-preventing  devices,  and  the  abolition 
of  grade  crossings  —  but  the  main  matter  of  public 
safety  rests  in  perfect  rails.  Ten  years  ago  I  tried 
to  fight  this  proposition,  and  I  nearly  succeeded. 
The  Tallahassee  Iron  and  Coal  Company  offered  to 
make  open-hearth  rails  to  my  specifications.  They 
had  the  ore,  the  process,  and  the  nucleus  of  the 
mills ;  but  they  would  have  had  a  monopoly.  They 
would  either  have  driven  the  Unified  Steel  Corpora 
tion  out  of  the  business,  or  have  compelled  them  to 


SUMNER  ROLLINS  ACCEPTS       153 

adopt  the  open-hearth  process,  the  only  present  pro 
cess  of  manufacture  which  produces  steel  without 
dangerous  brittleness.  The  Unified  Steel  Corpora 
tion  found  that  to  control  the  stock  of  the  Talla 
hassee  Iron  and  Coal  Company  was  much  cheaper 
and  more  profitable  than  to  spend  the  needed  mil 
lions  in  reequipping  their  plant,  and  it  was  a  then 
high  government  official  who  enabled  them  to  gain 
control  by  refusing  a  needed  federal  injunction. 
That  official,  through  this  one  act,  was  directly  re 
sponsible  for  the  loss  of  a  hundred  thousand  lives." 

''  Your  first  step,  then,  I  suppose,  would  be  to  be 
gin  a  fight  on  the  Unified  Steel  Corporation,"  ob 
served  Breed. 

*  That,  in  a  nutshell,  is  our  problem,"  declared 
Rollins. 

"  Your  problem  is  already  solved,  Mr.  Rollins," 
said  Kelvin  with  a  smile.  "  Mr.  Breed's  control  of 
the  railroads  has  left  the  Unified  Steel  Corporation 
high  and  dry.  The  panic  compelled  even  them  to 
release  stock  which  would  have  hampered  us  had 
they  been  able  to  hold  it.  They  know  that  they 
are  beaten,  for  if  they  do  not  produce  the  precise 
product  which  we  want  they  know  that  we  will  re 
fuse  them  not  only  patronage,  but  transportation. 
Moreover,  we  have  secured  entire  control  of  the 
Iroquois  Iron  Range;  and  no  matter  what  the  Uni 
fied  Steel  Corporation  does,  we  shall  set  up  our  own 


154  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

rolling-mills  and  make  rails  by  our  own  process, 
from  our  own  ore.  The  establishment  of  these 
mills,  in  the  way  you  want  them,  and  the  making 
of  steel  rails  according  to  your  own  specifications, 
would  probably  be  your  first  move." 

"  But  the  program  will  be  left  entirely  to  your 
own  discretion,"  interrupted  Breed.  "  You  shall 
have  a  contract  for  one  year,  renewable  for  ten 
years  if  your  preliminary  steps  meet  with  my 
approval." 

"  Allow  me  to  understand,"  said  Rollins.  "  In 
that  year  I  am  to  be  absolutely  without  interference 
in  any  way  ?  " 

"  With  two  exceptions,"  replied  Breed.  "  I  want 
a  private  rebate  on  all  shipments  of  bread  or  cereal 
stuffs.  Next,  here  is  a  list  of  names.  These  men 
are  not  to  be  employed  in  any  capacity  nor  benefited 
in  any  way." 

Rollins  looked  over  the  list  and  smiled.  "  There 
isn't  a  man  here  whom  I  would  lift  a  finger  to  save. 
There  is  not  a  man  in  that  list  but  has  had  an  in 
terest  in  a  car  company,  a  coupler  company,  a  brake 
company,  a  locomotive-tire  company,  or  some  other 
manufacturing  concern  which  furnished  supplies  to 
his  owrn  railroad  at  enormous  prices.  There  is  to 
be  no  graft  in  the  new  construction." 

"  Certainly  not !  "  agreed  Breed.  "  These  roads 
must  be  conducted  for  legitimate  profit  and  public 


SUMNER  ROLLINS  ACCEPTS        155 

safety.  If  there  is  any  graft  I  want  it  myself;  and 
I  am  content  to  take  dividends  for  mine." 

Rollins  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  That  is  a  mat 
ter  for  your  directorate.  I  don't  want  to  be  both 
ered  with  that  part  of  the  financing." 

"  Then  go  ahead/'  said  Breed.  "  For  one  year 
you  are  the  absolute  dictator  of  the  largest  empire 
in  the  world,  the  combined  railroads  of  the  United 
States." 

"Will  you  put  that  in  writing?"  asked  Rollins. 

Breed  looked  at  Kelvin. 

"  It  is  already  written,"  said  the  latter,  and  from 
his  desk  he  took  a  contract,  confined  to  one  sheet  of 
paper,  which  he  handed  to  Rollins. 

That  gentleman  took  the  paper,  read  it  over,  and 
caught  his  breath.  "  It  is  a  generous  salary,"  he 
admitted ;  "  more  generous  than  I  should  have  dared 
to  ask  for." 

"Huh!  I  am  saving  money  on  it,"  declared 
Breed.  "  It's  only  a  portion  of  a  thousand  fancy 
salaries  that  I  expect  you  to  stop  at  once." 

Rollins  nodded  his  head  in  comprehension.  "  I 
will  take  great  pleasure  in  stopping  a  few  of  them." 

Breed  rubbed  his  hands  slowly  together  in  satis 
faction.  "  As  soon  as  you  like,"  he  returned. 
"  Mr.  Kelvin  will  show  you  his  very  clever  plan 
for  dispensing  with  interstate-commerce-  and  anti- 
combination-law  interference,  and  will  make  you  at 


156  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

home  as  a  part  of  our  official  family  at  Forest  Lakes. 
Of  course  you  -will  have  offices  wherever  you  like, 
but  you  will  have  a  personal  office  here,  too,  with 
such  assistance  as  you  need,  that  you  can  visit  when 
necessary.  I,  myself,  do  not  intend  to  go  to  the 
city  any  more." 

Kelvin  conducted  Rollins  to  a  room,  next  to  his 
own,  that  had  been  fitted  with  a  commodious  desk 
and  all  that  should  go  with  it.  It  was  the  first  time 
Phillip  had  been  in  this  apartment.  When  he  had 
first  come  to  Forest  Lakes  he  had  wondered  to  find, 
in  this  new  wing  of  the  building,  an  office  so  per 
fectly  equipped  as  his  own.  He  had  noticed  no 
preparations  in  the  past  few  weeks,  and  yet  here 
was  another  office  equipped  with  every  needful  ap 
pointment.  Rollins  sat  upon  the  desk  and  looked 
about  him  smilingly. 

"  Looks  fairly  complete,  doesn't  it  ?  Did  you 
have  a  hand  in  this?  " 

"  No,"  said  Kelvin,  puzzled  and  piqued  as  well. 
"  It  has  been  arranged  for  a  long  time,  I  think. 
Mr.  Breed  has  probably  been  planning  to  make 
Forest  Lakes  the  capital  of  New  York  City." 

"  Perhaps  the  capital  of  the  United  States,"  re 
torted  Rollins,  smiling  in  answer  to  the  jest. 
"  Who  knows  ?  He  has  a  good  start.  He  has  paid 
a  lot  of  attention  to  detail,  too.  Everything  is  com 
plete  now  except  for  a  secretary,"  and  idly  he 


BUHNER  ROLLINS  ACCEPTS        157 

touched  one  of  the  row  of  buttons  along  the  right- 
hand  edge  of  his  desk,  the  one  marked  "  Secretary." 

Instantly  the  door  of  the  adjoining  room  opened, 
and  a  sober-faced  and  non-committal-looking  young 
man,  ruddy-cheeked  and  clean-eyed  and  tow-headed, 
walked  in,  note-book  in  hand. 

"  Hello,"  said  Rollins.     "  Who  are  you?  " 

"  I  am  your  secretary,  sir.  I  came  last  night. 
My  name  is  Jens  Nelson." 

"  Swedish,  eh  ?  "  guessed  Rollins. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Nelson.  "  I  am  a  graduate 
of  the  Minnesota  Technical  College,  founded  by 
Mr.  Breed,  and  am  one  of  his  scholarship  men." 

Rollins  smiled  over  the  naivete  of  this  admission. 
It  was  quite  evident  that  he  had,  as  his  most  in 
timate  man  of  affairs,  a  youth  who  owed  so  strong 
an  allegiance  to  Breed  that  he  could  never  be  won 
to  allegiance  to  any  one  else.  Oh,  well ;  he  welcomed 
such  espionage.  His  acts  were  going  to  bear  in 
spection;  only,  he  would  leave  Mr.  Nelson  in  charge 
of  the  seldom-visited  Forest  Lakes  headquarters. 

"  All  right,  Mr.  Nelson,"  said  he.  "  You  have  a 
telegraph  operator  here,  I  believe,  Mr.  Kelvin." 

"  Wireless,"  amended  Phillip. 

Rollins  glanced  at  his  row  of  buttons  and  nodded 
his  head.  "  I  see,"  said  he,  "  but  I  was  not  sure 
that  it  was  yet  in  operation.  Mr.  Nelson,  you  may 
take  these  Marconigrams,"  and  without  any  hesita- 


158  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

tion  he  began  dictating  peremptory  discharges  to  a 
long  list  of  railroad  officials. 

Thus  set  in  the  new  empire  —  the  empire  of  the 
iron  highways ;  an  empire  which  held  under  its 
absolute  control  the  commercial  destinies  of  the  na 
tion;  an  empire  more  powerful  than  any  ever  con 
ceived  by  man;  an  empire  which  could  build  a  city 
or  could  isolate  one  from  the  world,  which  could 
ruin  a  business  or  wax  it  fat,  like  a  gourd  upon  its 
vine;  against  whose  edict  there  could  be  no  appeal; 
to  whose  progress  there  could  be  no  resistance; 
whose  tentacles  were  fastened  upon  every  city  and 
village  and  hamlet,  upon  every  farm  and  mine  and 
forest,  upon  every  capitalist,  merchant,  farmer,  and 
laborer  in  the  United  States;  and  those  powerful 
tentacles  could  either  suck  the  life-blood  from  all 
these  municipalities,  institutions,  and  men,  or  could 
feed  them.  It  was  a  reign  that  began  peacefully 
and  quietly  as  the  stern  Rollins,  with  a  smile, 
dispossessed  half  a  thousand  men  from  their  fat 
sinecures ;  but  as  he  worked,  Henry  Breed,  attended 
by  Doctor  Zelphan  and  carrying  a  bundle  of  golf- 
sticks,  stopped  in  the  door  a  moment. 

"  By  the  way,  Rollins,"  said  he,  "  there  is  only 
one  personal  provision  I  wish  to  make,  and  that 
must  be  seen  to  from  the  first.  I  want  my  divi 
dends  all  in  cash.  Nothing  else,  understand;  just 
cash!" 


CHAPTER  XIV 

DOCTOR  ZELPHAN  PENETRATES  THE  BILLION  DOLLAR 
VAULT  AND  INDULGES  IN  WRATH 

THE  only  portion  of  Doctor  Zelphan's  coun 
tenance  visible  through  his  wealth  of  red 
beard  and  mustache  was  his  nose,  and  that 
portion  was  highly  inflamed,  for  the  doctor  was 
angry.  Three  times  he  paced  the  length  of  the 
broad  front  porch,  and  each  time  he  passed  the  open 
hallway  door  he  looked  in  and  scowled.  Finally, 
with  sudden  determination,  he  was  about  to  enter, 
when  he  saw  striding  with  a  free  step,  from  around 
a  clump  of  bushes  that  bordered  a  curve  in  the 
main  driveway,  the  familiar  figure  of  Sumner  Rol 
lins.  Though  still  in  an  ill  humor,  he  waited  for 
Rollins,  and  peered  at  that  gentleman  through  his 
thick  spectacles  with  as  pleasant  an  expression  as 
he  could  assume  under  the  circumstances. 

"  Glorious  morning,"  began  Rollins  as  he  neared 
the  steps. 

He  was  in  particularly  good  trim  after  an  ab 
sence  of  some  months,  and  though  he  had  just 

159 


160  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

walked  a  matter  of  six  miles  or  more,  except  for  the 
dust  on  his  shoes  he  was  as  precise  and  clean,  with 
his  white  tie  and  freshly  pressed  clothing,  as  if  he 
had  just  come  from  his  apartments. 

"  I  came  down  rather  unexpectedly,"  he  went  on, 
as  he  kicked  his  shoes  against  the  bottom  step 
and  walked  up  on  the  porch.  "  The  air  wTas 
so  deliciously  invigorating  when  I  got  off  at  the 
station  that  I  could  not  resist  walking  over." 

The  doctor  had  shaken  hands  with  Rollins  more 
genially  than  he  had  thought  for  the  moment  to  be 
within  his  range  of  feeling,  for,  after  all,  he  liked 
Rollins.  "  Walking  is  good  for  you,"  he  said. 
"  You  have  a  long  life  before  you  if  you  will  just 
w:atch  your  liver.  That's  your  weak  spot." 

"  So  I  have  been  told,"  replied  Rollins,  laughing, 
as  they  started  to  go  in.  "  I  suppose  Kelvin's  in 
his  office?" 

"  No,"  said  the  doctor  rather  shortly,  "  Mr. 
Kelvin  is  not  in  his  office.  He  is  out  with  Mrs. 
Rensselaer  and  young  Rensselaer  and  Miss  Breed, 
fishing! "  There  was  no  explaining  the  contempt 
with  which  Doctor  Zelphan  jerked  out  that  last 
word.  "  Fishing! "  he  repeated  with  the  utmost 
scorn.  "  Fishing  in  a  private  lake  for  pet  fish  that 
come  up  to  be  fed  when  they  are  called !  " 

"  It  doesn't  sound  much  like  sport,"  confessed 


ZELPHAN  INDULGES  IN  WRATH      161 

Rollins;  "  but  after  all,  I  envy  them.  Where  is  Mr. 
Breed?" 

Again  the  frown  returned  that  all  the  morning 
had  crossed  Doctor  Zelphan's  brow.  "  I  don't 
know,"  he  snapped ;  "  but  he  is  some  place  about 
the  house.  I'll  find  him  for  you." 

"  There's  no  hurry,"  returned  Rollins  easily. 
"If  you  see  either  Mr.  Kelvin  or  Mr.  Breed  before 
I  get  word  to  them  kindly  say  that  I  am  here." 

"  I'm  going  to  hunt  Mr.  Breed  anyhow,"  declared 
Zelphan  savagely,  and  following  Rollins  into  the  hall 
he  stepped  into  Henry  Breed's  dim  old  library, 
slamming  the  door  behind  him.  Rollins  glanced  at 
the  door  with  a  laugh  as  he  started  up  the  broad 
stairway.  Doctor  Zelphan  and  his  irascibility  had 
always  amused  him.  Going  back  through  the  upper 
hall,  Rollins  stopped  for  a  moment  in  Blagg's  room, 
where  the  wireless  operator  sat  idly  at  his  instru 
ment,  the  greenish  light  giving  to  his  gaunt  features 
a  particularly  deathlike  ghastliness,  especially  as  the 
man  sat  perfectly  motionless  with  his  eyes  upturned 
to  the  ceiling. 

"  Gad,  Blagg!  I  wish  you  would  put  pink  glass 
around  those  tubes !  "  exclaimed  Rollins  with  an 
involuntary  shudder.  "  That  whole  tableau  sug 
gests  the  resurrection  morn,  with  you  headed  in  the 
wrong  direction." 


"  I'll  be  headed  with  the  crowd,  then,"  returned 
Blagg;  "  but  I  am  afraid  we  won't  have  your  com 
pany  if  you  keep  on  receiving  this  kind  of  protests 
from  this  sort  of  people,"  and  he  handed  Rollins 
two  wireless  messages  which  the  latter  read  with  a 
passing  frown.  One  was  signed  by  the  head  of  an 
immense  packing-house  in  Chicago,  the  other  by  the 
president  of  the  largest  fruit-shipping  company  on 
the  western  coast.  To  both  he  dictated  the  same 
curt  reply: 

"  Discussion  positively  closed." 

Blagg  read  the  answers  with  a  grim  smile.  "  Al 
low  me  to  congratulate  you,"  said  he.  "  You  may 
not  know  it,  but  you  are  doing  splendid  preliminary 
work  for  the  social  equity  cause." 

"The  preliminary  work?"  repeated  Rollins. 
"  How  do  you  think  it  will  be  finished  ?  " 

"  In  violence,"  returned  Blagg  with  a  darkening; 
brow. 

Rollins  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  Violent  con 
versation,  largely,  I  guess,"  he  rejoined. 

Blagg's  eyes  snapped.  "  Deeds !  "  he  declared. 
"  Let  inequality  and  oppression  go  on  for  but  a  short 
time  more,  and  there  will  be  such  a  revolt  from  the 
darker  depths  of  this  country  as  not  even  France 
has  ever  known.  There  exists,  even  now,  a  close 
organization  of  the  under-dogs  who  are  ready  at  a 


ZELPHAN  INDULGES  IN  WRATH      163 

word  to  rise  and  undo  the  wrongs  to  which  justice 
has  grown  blind." 

"  You  seem  to  know  a  lot  about  it,"  commented 
Rollins. 

Blagg  calmed  down  his  excitement  with  an  effort. 
<:  I  keep  fairly  well  posted,"  said  he.  "  Among 
other  things  I  know  that  there  is  a  branch  of  that 
organization  which  needs  just  such  men  as  you." 

"  I  am  rather  busy  as  it  is,"  returned  Rollins 
dryly,  and  walked  over  to  his  own  office.  He  had 
not  been  in  it  for  months;  he  had  never  occupied  it 
for  more  than  two  days  at  a  time,  and  yet,  when 
he  pushed  the  button  upon  his  desk  for  his  secretary, 
that  white-haired  and  self-contained  young  man 
walked  in  from  the  adjoining  apartment,  note-book 
in  hand,  as  commonplacely  as  if  this  were  the  begin 
ning  of  the  regular  morning  grind. 

"  Have  you  prepared  the  data  I  asked  you  to  get 
ready,  Nelson  ?  "  inquired  Rollins. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  replied  Nelson.  He  walked  across  to 
a  filing-cabinet,  brought  from  it  a  drawer  which 
he  set  upon  Rollins'  desk  and  lifted  up  the  spring. 
Rollins  leafed  through  the  indexed  flaps,  beneath 
which,  very  carefully  arranged,  were  displayed  the 
mileage  distances,  by  various  routes,  between  all 
important  points  in  the  United  States,  with  the  per 
centage  of  grade  resistance  figured  in  units,  these, 


1 64  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

compounded  with  the  mileage,  showing  the  ultimate 
hauling  resistance.  It  had  been  a  tremendous  task ; 
it  was  neatly  and  perfectly  accomplished ;  yet  Nelson 
showed  neither  elation  nor  diffidence. 

"  This  is  splendidly  done,"  observed  Rollins  after 
a  long  interval  of  careful  inspection. 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Nelson  quietly. 

Rollins  glanced  up  at  him  with  puzzled  curiosity. 
He  saw  nothing  but  an  absolutely  placid  and  expres 
sionless  face.  "  That  will  do  just  now7,"  said  he 
with  a  slight  frown;  and  Jens  walked  composedly 
into  his  own  room,  a  fathomless  enigma  to  Rollins. 

In  the  meantime,  Doctor  Zelphan,  crossing  the 
library,  paused  before  the  door  at  the  far  side  of  the 
fireplace,  and,  after  a  moment  of  frowning  hesita 
tion,  resolutely  thrust  open  the  door  and  entered. 
To  his  surprise  Henry  Breed  was  not  there.  For 
a  moment  he  stood  nonplussed.  He  knew  that  Breed 
had  not  gone  out  into  the  grounds,  because  he  had 
watched  for  him,  and  he  had  made  a  through  search 
of  the  house.  He  gazed  around  the  room  curiously. 
It  had  once  been  fitted  up  as  a  bedroom,  and,  indeed, 
a  small  iron  bed,  unused  except  for  noonday  naps, 
stilj  stood  in  one  corner.  The  main  use  of  the 
room,  however,  was  as  an  adjunct  to  the  library. 
Here  Breed  had  a  small  private  desk;  and  here,  let 
into  the  wall  where  the  fireplace  should  have  been, 
was  a  small  safe. 


ZELPHAN  INDULGES  IN  WRATH     165 

In  the  corner  of  the  room,  on  the  same  side  as  the 
safe,  a  door  stood  open,  and  Zelphan,  with  an  angry 
determination  to  see  everything  here,  approached 
that  closet.  Its  rear  wall  was  hung  with  clothing, 
a  golf-outfit  and  such  minor  garments  as  Breed 
might  wish  to  change  during  the  daytime;  but  the 
closet  struck  Zelphan  as  of  an  odd  shape,  being 
much  deeper  at  one  end  than  the  other.  He  put  his 
hand  upon  the  rear  wall  at  the  deeper  side,  and  it 
yielded  to  his  touch,  swinging  backward  into  a  nar 
row  space  from  which  came  a  damp  odor  and  a 
faint  gleam  of  light. 

"  So,"  said  Doctor  Zelphan  aloud,  and  imme 
diately  he  squeezed  back  .into  the  narrow  space  and 
descended  the  two  flights  of  narrow  stairs  to  the  big 
vault,  the  existence  of  which  he  .had  never  even  sus 
pected.  In  the  center  of  'the  vault,  \vith  the  light 
from  a  cluster  of  electric  bulbs  gleaming  down  upon 
his  bald  -head,  with  one  of  the  many  iron  drawers 
upon  his  knees,  and  with  an  old,  well-thumbed  Bible 
on  the  bench  at  his  side,  sat  Henry  Breed.  In  his 
hands  was  a  package  of  the  paper  money  with  which 
the  drawer  was  filled,  and  he  was  gazing,  rapt,  at 
the  opposite  side  of  the  vault.  He  turned  with 
out  surprise  toward  the  familiar  figure  of  Doc 
tor  Zelphan,  and  chuckled  as  he  patted  the  drawer. 

"  This  is  the  first  row  on  all  that  side  to  be  filled," 
said  he.  "  I  began  at  the  lower  corner  there.  All 


166  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

the  other  rows  are  empty,  but  they'll  fill  up;  they'll 
fill  up;"  and  he  nodded  his  head  in  satisfaction. 
"  Those  other  sides  were  filled  by  the  bread  business, 
but  this  is  railroad  dividends,  in  cash,  solid  cash!  " 

Doctor  Zelphan  was  looking  about  him  in  amaze 
ment.  "  There  must  be  millions  here !  "  he  gasped. 

"  Millions  ?  "  cackled  Breed,  his  wrinkled  old  face 
breaking  into  a  leathery  smile.  "  There's  over  a 
billion  and  a  half  —  " 

Suddenly,  as  he  looked  at  the  doctor,  he  stopped 
and  began  to  tremble.  It  had  just  dawned  upon 
him  that  this  was  the  first  time  Zelphan  had  ever 
visited  this  vault;  indeed,  the  first  time  that  he  had 
even  known  about  it.  "  How  did  you  come  here?  " 
he  cried.  "  You  were  told  that  that  little  room  up 
stairs  was  my  strictly  private  study,  that  I  wished 
no  one  to  come  into  it." 

"  Exactly,"  agreed  Zelphan  dryly ;  "  but  now  that 
I  have  found  the  way,  I  am  coming  whenever  you 
do,  or  I  am  not  going  to  stay  at  Forest  Lakes." 

"Don't  go  away,  Doctor!"  pleaded  Breed  in 
sudden  fright.  "  Don't  leave  me.  When  you  ar 
rived  I  was  a  nervous  wreck,  but  since  you  came  I 
have  been  able  to  do  a  lot  of  work;  good  work, 
splendid  work ! " 

He  had  laid  his  hand  appealingly  upon  the  doc 
tor's  arm.  Zelphan  shook  it  off  roughly. 

"  That's  because  you  at  first  did  what  I  told  you ; 


ZELPHAN  INDULGES  IN  .WRATH'    167 

but  of  late  you've  grown  careless.  You  give  me  the 
slip  every  morning  now,  and  I  can't  find  you. 
When  you  should  be  out  in  the  fresh  air  you  are 
down  here  in  this  unhealthy  atmosphere  with  un 
healthy  thoughts,  counting  money;  not  the  money 
that  you  have,  but  the  money  you  expect  to  make. 
I  knew  that  you  had  torn  yourself  to  pieces  in  build 
ing  up  your  immense  bread  and  cereal  monopoly, 
but  I  hadn't  the  slightest  idea  that  you  were  a  mere 
miser." 

That  word  seemed  to  restore  Breed  to  his  equi 
librium,  for  he  laughed  quite  naturally,  replaced  the 
package  of  bills  in  the  drawer,  walked  over  to  the 
corner  of  the  vault,  and  slid  the  drawer  into  place. 
"  A  miser,  Doctor,"  he  smilingly  expostulated,  "  is 
a  man  who  hoards  his  money  for  its  own  sake.  He 
never  uses  it  for  pleasure  or  comfort,  he  never  even 
puts  it  to  work;  but  this  money  of  mine,  by  the  mere 
fact  of  its  being  here,  is  a.  tremendous  dynamo,  by 
the^mighty  current  of  which  I  can  sway  almost  the 
entire  social  and  economic  universe.  To  its  own 
good,  to  its  own  good !  "  he  hastily  added.  "  With 
it,  when  duly  increased,  I  can  right  great  wrongs, 
change  unjust  laws,  destroy  and  build  anew  entire 
civilizations,  shatter  and  re-create  governments! 
Think,  Doctor!  Handled  with  my  experience  and 
the  genius  of  young  Kelvin,  this  money  has  already 
bankrupted  nearly  every  enemy  I  had  in  the  world, 


1 68  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

destroyed  the  iniquity  of  the  New  York  Stock  Ex 
change,  and  given  me  absolute  control  of  every  mile 
of  railroad  in  the  United  States.  No  miser's  money 
could  have  done  that." 

"  Incidentally,"  observed  Zelphan,  "  several  hun 
dred  thousand  people  were  thrown  out  of  work,  a 
thousand  or  so  starved  to  death,  a  few  hundred  com 
mitted  suicide,  and  other  hundreds  deserted  their 
families." 

"  For  their  iniquities  the  Lord  shall  bring  suffer 
ing  upon  His  people,"  solemnly  declared  Breed,  and 
reached  down  a  nervous  hand  for  his  Bible. 
"  Through  fire  shall  they  pass  to  their  purification, 
and  mine  is  the  appointed  hand !  " 

Zelphan  looked  at  him  sternly.  "  I  want  you 
to  come  out  of  this  place,  at  once,  and  stay  out," 
he  ordered. 

"  No,  no !  "  objected  Breed  nervously.  "  No ! 
I  must  come  in  every  day,  Doctor  —  just  a  little 
while." 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  you  must,"  admitted  Zelphan, 
studying  the  matter  in  grave  silence  for  a  moment. 
"  I'll  give  you  thirty  minutes  every  day ;  but  some 
one  must  be  with  you." 

"  My  granddaughter  usually  comes  with  me,"  ex 
plained  Breed.  "  She  is  the  only  one,  besides  my 
self,  who  knows  the  combination  to  these  locks;  and 
only  we  four,  Lillian  and  Kelvin  and  you  and  I, 


ZELPHAN  INDULGES  IN  WRATH     169 

know  of  its  existence.  You  must  guard  this  secret 
well,  Zelphan." 

"  No  danger  of  my  telling  it,"  scorned  the  doctor. 
"  I  don't  want  to  ruin  any  human  soul  with  the 
knowledge  that  all  this  money  is  here,  guarded  only 
by  iron  bolts  and  your  handful  of  armed  guards. 
There's  a  curse  on  the  stuff.  More  than  enough  to 
live  on  has  never  done  any  one  any  good.  Look 
at  yourself." 

"What  is  the  matter  with  me?"  asked  Breed 
quickly. 

"Oh,  nothing,"  said  Zelphan  quietly;  "only  you 
are  losing  your  mind,  that  is  all,"  and  his  glance 
strayed  for  an  instant  to  the  Bible  which  Breed  held 
clasped  beneath  his  arm.  "If  you  don't  keep  away 
from  this  silent  brooding  you'll  be  a  jibbering  idiot 
in  less  than  a  year;  and  I  shall  not  remain  here  to 
take  the  blame  for  it.  Unless  you  obey  me  im 
plicitly  I  shall  leave  you.  I  had  a  notion  to  do  so 
this  morning,  but  Mr.  Rollins  came,  and  I  changed 
my  mind." 

"  Rollins ! "  exclaimed  Breed,  his  fear  vanish 
ing  and  his  shrewdness  returning  as  if  by  magic. 
"  Is  he  here  ?  Good !  I  must  see  him  at  once,"  and 
he  hurried  out  of  the  vault,  waiting  impatiently  for 
Zelphan  to  follow  him. 

"  You'll  do  nothing  of  the  sort,"  asserted  Zelphan, 
closing  the  door  after  him. 


170  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Not  see  Rollins  ?  Nonsense !  "  exclaimed  Breed 
as  he  threw  the  bolt  and  touched  the  button  to  turn 
out  the  light.  "  This  is  important.  I  must  see  Rol 
lins." 

"  Important  or  not,  you  are  coming  out  with  me 
for  a  half-hour's  walk  before  you  see  any  one." 

"  Then  you  may  go !  "  declared  Breed,  turning  on 
him  with  sudden  senile  fury.  "  Leave  Forest 
Lakes  as  soon  as  you  like;  go  now! " 

"  I'll  not  do  that  either,"  announced  Zelphan 
flatly.  "  I'm  interested  now,  and  I  intend  to 
remain." 


CHAPTER  XV 

MRS.    RENSSELAER,   ATTEMPTING   TO   AROUSE 
FAMILY    PRIDE    IN    HERBERT,,    IS    SHOCKED. 

KELVIN,  in  the  bow  of  the  boat,  looked  at  his 
watch  and  began  reeling  in  his  line.  "  I 
am  sorry,  but  I  shall  have  to  leave  you," 
said  he.  "  I  must  be  back  at  the  office  in  fifteen 
minutes." 

"  What's  your  hurry  ? "  asked  young  Rens- 
selaer.  "  One  would  think  there  was  a  time- 
recording  clock  waiting  to  stamp  your  morning 
ticket." 

Kelvin  laughed.  "  The  worst  part  of  loafing  is 
that  a  loafer  wants  to  convert  everybody  else  to  his 
mode  of  life,"  he  retorted.  "  You're  not  much  like 
the  Bar  X  Bert  I  used  to  know  in  the  old  cow- 
punching  days,  nor  even  the  Herbert  Rensselaer 
who  used  to  make  a  flying  wedge  of  himself  and 
buck  his  way  to  the  center  of  the  most  agitated 
group  on  the  floor  of  the  Stock  Exchange." 

"  No,"  returned  Rensselaer,  making  a  long  cast 
so  perfectly  that  it  scarcely  jarred  the  boat.  "  I 
have  seen  the  folly  of  my  youth.  When,  without 


172  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

effort,  I  can  enjoy  an  estate  like  Forest  Lakes  and 
the  society  of  its  gracious  and  charming  hostesses," 
and  he  bowed  extravagantly  to  the  two  ladies, 
whereupon  his  aunt  beamed  upon  him  and  Lillian 
Breed  laughed  and  shrugged  her  shoulders,  "  why 
should  I  toil?" 

Phillip's  hook  caught  on  the  oar-lock,  and  he 
leaned  forward  to  disengage  it.  Lillian,  sitting  just 
in  front  of  him,  deliberately  leaned  back,  though 
with  a  pretense  of  helping  him,  until  her  rounded 
shoulder  touched  his  cheek.  She  held  it  there,  and 
with  a  thrill  he  became  acutely  conscious  of  the 
warmth  of  the  contact. 

"  Don't  go,"  she  said,  sinking  her  voice  ever  so 
little  below  its  ordinary  conversational  tone. 

Phillip  suddenly  drew  his  cheek  away  from  that 
insidious  touch,  angry  with  himself  that,  until  rea 
son  came  to  his  aid,  his  blood  had  leaped  to  the  un 
spoken  call. 

The  calm,  even  voice  of  Mrs.  Rensselaer,  who 
was  finding  the  task  of  taming  the  wild  Lillian  for  a 
social  campaign  an  endless  one,  broke  in  upon  his 
momentary  confusion.  "  Lillian,  you  must  remem 
ber  that  Mr.  Kelvin's  sense  of  duty  is  never  at 
fault." 

Kelvin  winced  slightly  at  that  remark. 

"  Kelvin's  sense  of  duty  is  an  awe-inspiring  and 
even  a  fatiguing  thing,"  commented  Herbert,  fas- 


MRS.  RENSSELAER  IS  SHOCKED;     173 

tening  his  line  to  the  gunwale  of  the  boat  and  lan 
guidly  picking  up  the  oars.  "  Heave  anchor ! 
Ahoy !  Also  avast  and  belay !  " 

There  was  no  more  languidness  in  him,  however, 
from  the  first  dip  of  his  oars  in  the  water.  Mrs. 
Rensselaer,  sitting  in  the  prow,  admired  mightily 
the  play  of  his  biceps  and  the  rise  and  fall  of  his 
broad  shoulders  as  he  spun  the  boat  swiftly  and 
easily  to  the  shore.  Herbert  deftly  shifted  his  oars, 
sprang  out  at  the  side,  helped  his  aunt  from  the 
boat  and  drew  it  farther  up  on  the  beach,  then  of 
fered  his  hand  to  Lillian,  who,-  barely  touching  it, 
poised  herself  upon  the  gunwale  and  sprang,  with 
a  splendid  muscular  effort,  far  up  the  bank.  As 
Kelvin  stepped  out  he  once  more  looked  at  his 
watch. 

"  You  will  pardon  me  if  I  hurry  on?  "  he  said. 

"  Oh,  we  are  all  going,"  returned  Lillian.  "  It's 
too  late  for  the  fish  to  bite  any  more,  anyhow." 

Kelvin  was  already  passing  her.  The  bank  was 
very  steep  at  this  point,  and,  although  impatient 
for  more  than  one  reason,  of  necessity  he  offered 
to  help  her.  She  at  once  took  his  arm  and  hung 
heavily  upon  it.  Near  the  top  she  slipped,  and  he 
•was  compelled  to  throw  his  arm  hastily  about  her. 
She  let  her  shoulders  rest  limply  back  in  his  em 
brace,  and  allowed  him  to  drag  her  dead  weight  up 
over  the  little  rise;  and  Kelvin  almost  cursed  him- 


174  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

self  aloud,  for  again  he  had  found  that  contact 
more  than  pleasurable.  Impatient  with  both  her 
and  himself,  he  swung  on,  as  soon  as  they  struck 
the  level  roadway,  at  a  rapid  pace,  but  the  girl 
kept  abreast  of  him  with  a  smooth,  even  stride  that 
he  could  not  help  but  admire.  This  thought  cross 
ing  his  mind,  he  glanced  down  at  her,  as,  chatting 
gaily  on  a  score  of  nothings,  she  swung  along  be 
side  him  beneath  the  arched  trees  of  the  beautiful 
driveway  through  the  woods.  Her  black  hair  was 
\vaved  low  about  her  oval  face ;  her  dark  eyes  were 
agleam  with  vivacity;  her  cheeks,  from  the  fresh 
morning  air  and  the  exercise,  wore  the  glow  of  a 
damask  rose ;  her  supple,  well-rounded  figure  moved 
with  a  grace  that  was  almost  feline ;  her  gown,  elab 
orate  in  the  artfulness  of  its  construction,  though 
simple  to  his  masculine  eyes,  cast  itself  in  the  breeze 
into  lines  of  infinite  enticement.  "  After  all  —  " 
Phillip  brought  himself  back  to  the  future  with  a 
jerk.  "  No  entanglements  with  women."  That 
had  been  the  one  warning  motto  he  had  set  for  him 
self,  and  he  must  observe  it  if  he  would  accomplish 
his  boundless  ambitions.  It  had  been  easy  so  far, 
but  here,  in  the  isolation  of  Forest  Lakes,  in  spite  of 
himself  thrown  much  into  the  company  of  this 
blandishing  Eve,  it  was  a  harder  task  to  keep  him 
self  self-centered.  Elsie  White  he  found  no  trouble 
in  resisting,  for  she  avoided  him,  intuitively  feeling 


MRS.  RENSSELAER  IS  SHOCKED      175 

herself  held  aloof,  but  this  was  a  different  matter. 
Love,  he  could  deny,  or  at  least  postpone.  His  own 
lusty  youth  was  a  more  impetuous  assailant;  and 
Lillian  deliberately  enlisted  the  aid  of  that  lustiness. 

In  the  meantime  Mrs.  Rensselaer,  puffing  from 
the  exertion  of  being  dragged  up  the  bank  by  Her 
bert,  turned  to  that  young  man  with  severity. 
"  Herbert,"  she  admonished  him,  "  really  I  think 
you  are  neglecting  your  opportunities  most  shame 
fully." 

"  I  think  so  myself,"  he  agreed.  "  If  you  were 
to  let  me  alone  I  could  make  my  way  very  nicely, 
and  be  perfectly  happy.  I  could  do  anything,  from 
going  back  on  a  ranch  as  head  cow-puncher,  to  in 
festing  a  strenuous  city  office  and  working  my  way 
up." 

"  That  dreadful  Western  blood  you  have  in  you 
will  sometime  drive  me  mad,"  she  expostulated. 
"  Please  remember  that  you  are,  after  all,  a  Rens 
selaer,  and  the  only  one  of  the  branch  who  could 
restore  the  family  fortune.  Do  you  know  that  the 
parvenu  who  bought  the  old  Rensselaer  place  on 
Fifth  Avenue  was  bankrupted  in  Mr.  Kelvin's  recent 
New  York  operations?  The  place  will  be  for  sale. 
It  is  within  your  reach  to  make  the  name  of  Rens 
selaer  precisely  what  it  used  to  be."  • 

"  With  Miss  Breed's  money,"  commented  Her 
bert  with  ill-concealed  disdain.  "If  I  loved  her, 


1 76  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

or  if  she  herself  were  capable  of  love,  it  would  be 
different." 

"  You  are  perfectly  absurd,  Herbert,"  she  in 
sisted.  "  Lillian  is  the  richest  girl  in  the  world. 
After  she  is  married,  her  little  eccentricities,  im 
possible  in  a  girl,  will  only  enhance  her  charm. 
Let  me  be  perfectly  frank  with  you.  This  girl, 
while  she  thinks  she  has  her  mind  set  upon  Phillip 
Kelvin,  really  wants  a  husband.  I  scarcely  dare 
usher  her  into  society  unmarried  —  she  would  dis 
grace  us  all ;  but  any  strong  man,  such  as  you,  could 
marry  her,  master  her,  and  make  her  content,  and 
she  would  be  most  presentable.  Kelvin  is  not  offer 
ing  her  any  encouragement  just  now,  but  mark  my 
word,  he  will.  If  you  will  exert  yourself  at  once 
and  pay  her  plenty  of  attention,  she  will  fall  right 
into  your  arms." 

"  I  am  afraid  that  it  would  be  my  impulse  to  step 
back  and  let  her  fall  still  farther,"  he  declared. 

"  You  are  ungrateful,"  she  charged.  "  I  am 
making  more  sacrifices  for  you  than  you  know." 

For  a  moment  he  softened.  "  I  appreciate  that 
you  are,  and  I  do  seem  ungrateful.  But  I  want  to 
work,  to  carve  out  my  own  fortune  as  Kelvin  has 
done.  I  am  not  so  clever  as  he.  I  could  not  make 
a  million  in  five  years,  as  he  did,  but  I  could  try, 
which,  if  you  only  knew,  is  a  great  satisfaction. 
Instead  of  that,  you  make  me  stop  work.  You  give 


MRS.  RENSSELAER  IS  SHOCKED     177 

up  practically  your  whole  income  to  keep  me  an  idler 
at  a  few  good  clubs  in  New  York,  between  my  all 
too  frequent  visits  here.  I'd  much  rather  do  some 
thing  for  myself,  and,  after  all,  I  don't  see  how  you 
can  consistently  object.  You  are  yourself  accepting 
a  salary." 

"  Herbert !  "  she  exclaimed,  very  much  shocked. 
"  I  am  a  guest  here,  and  the  money  I  receive  from 
Mr.  Breed  is  the  income  from  investments  which  he 
has  made  for  me." 

He  laughed.  "  Ten  thousand  dollars,"  said  he ; 
"  and  on  that  Breed  pays  you  dividends  of  ten  thou 
sand  a  year.  It's  salary,  nothing  else." 

"  How  crude  you  are !  "  she  protested.  "  How 
do  you  know  that  Mr.  Breed  does  not  make  one 
hundred  per  cent  on  the  money  I  gave  him?  How 
do  I  know?  Again  I  tell  you,  you  are  ungrateful." 

"  I  suppose  so,"  he  admitted  wearily,  "  although 
why  one  should  be  compelled  to  be  eternally  grateful 
for  an  unwelcome  and  more  or  less  oppressive 
gift- 

"  That  will  be  sufficient !  "  she  returned,  and  he 
lapsed  into  moody  silence. 

As  they  neared  the  house,  Elsie  White,  who  had 
been  gathering  flowers  for  Lillian's  room,  went  up 
on  the  porch,  where  Rollins  met  her  and  stopped 
to  chat  with  her  for  a  moment. 

"  If  you  must  know,"  Rensselear  said,  "  there  is 


178  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

an  illustration  of  why  the  thought  of  Lillian  is  so 
distasteful  to  me.  That's  the  kind  of  girl  I  want  to 
marry." 

"  Lillian's  maid !  "  his  aunt  exclaimed.  "  Her 
bert,  you  are  really  past  belief." 

"  You  needn't  worry  about  her ;  I  don't  want  that 
particular  one,  and  if  I  did  I  couldn't  have  her. 
Her  eyes  see  no  one  but  Phillip.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,"  and  he  laughed  entirely  without  bitterness, 
"  there  is  no  use  in  my  considering  any  girl  while 
Phillip's  around.  They  won't  look  at  me." 

"Nonsense!"  returned  Mrs.  Rensselaer.  "If 
you  think  that  girls  have  no  regard  for  family  you 
are  very  much  mistaken." 

Herbert  made  a  wry  face.  "  Watch  the  man 
of  accomplishment,  auntie,"  he  advised  her.  "  He 
can  nearly  take  his  pick  of  the  worth-while  girls, 
for,  though  girls  may  not  recognize  the  reason,  ac 
complishment  means  something  more  than  just  what 
one  has  done;  it  means  fundamental  virility." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  if  you  went  to  this  girl 
of  no  class  whatever  and  offered  her  the  Rensselaer 
name  she  would  refuse  you?  " 

"  She  certainly  would,"  replied  Herbert  promptly. 
"  To  her,  position  means  but  very  little,  love  means 
much;  and  she  is  beautiful  enough  to  command 
love !  " 

"  She    is    handsome,"    reluctantly    admitted    his 


MRS.  RENSSELAER  IS  SHOCKED    179 

aunt ;  "  but  rather  vulgarly  healthy,  don't  you 
think?" 

"  God  is  vulgar  in  a  good  many  things  He  does," 
replied  Herbert  wearily.  "  Sunsets  and  flowers, 
for  instance.  Dreadfully  loud  colors  He  uses  some 
times." 

Breed,  just  then,  came  out  and  called  Rollins  into 
the  library  where  Kelvin  was  already  seated.  The 
old  man  was  almost  childish  in  his  admiration  of 
his  two  lieutenants,  as  he  chose  to  call  them. 

"  I  have  been  waiting  for  years  for  this,"  said  he, 
rubbing  his  clawlike  hands  together,  as  he  looked 
from  the  one  to  the  other  of  them.  "  In  all  my 
years  of  money-making  my  only  worry  was  that 
when  the  time  came  I  might  not  find  capable  men 
through  which  to  wield  the  ultimate  power  I  craved. 
Like  most  worry,  it  was  wasted.  You  two  young 
men  have  done  wonderful  work,  but  it  has  only  just 
begun." 

"  Precisely  my  errand,"  said  Rollins  with  a  rather 
wan  smile.  "  The  work  is  only  just  begun,  and  at 
the  outset  I  have  found  so  much  opposition  that  I 
ran  down  here  for  moral  support." 

'  You've  come  to  the  right  place,"  laughed  Kel 
vin.  "  At  Forest  Lakes  we're  dealing  almost  exclu 
sively  in  moral  support." 

"  Backed  by  the  dead  weight  of  more  cash  than 
was  ever  in  one  man's  control  since  time  began," 


i8o  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

chuckled  Breed.  "  What  are  your  difficulties,  Mr. 
Rollins?" 

"  Well,"  said  Rollins,  "  I  have  practically  put  the 
Unified  Steel  Corporation  out  of  business,  as  a 
monopoly.  Here  is  a  communication  I  had  from 
MacDougal.  If  ever  a  big  man  made  a  whine  in  a 
letter  MacDougal  is  the  man,  and  here  is  his 
whine ; "  and  with  huge  contempt  he  tossed  down 
a  three-page  missive  which  Kelvin  read  with  a  smile. 

"  The  answer,"  went  on  Rollins,  "  is  open-hearth 
steel  and  the  control  of  transportation.  I  have  both. 
As  fast  as  they  can  make  them,  the  plants  I  recently 
installed  in  Tennessee  are  turning  out  one  hundred 
and  twenty-pound  rails  by  the  open-hearth  process. 
The  Unified  Steel  Corporation  is  compelled  to  make 
what  we  want  or  shut  up  shop.  I  have  put  them  in 
direct  competition  with  our  own  plants,  and  they 
are  underbidding  us.  I  intend  to  let  them  have 
some  large  contracts  at  a  price  we  can  not  touch. 
Now  I  begin  to  have  dreams." 

"  I  don't  see  any  difficulty  in  that,"  laughed  Kel 
vin.  "  A  man  doesn't  dream  many  dreams  in  the 
face  of  failures.  It's  success  that  brings  dreams. 
I  have  dreams  of  my  own.  I  have  done  a  little 
thinking  about  these  dreams  of  late." 

"  I  know  you  have,"  interposed  Rollins. 
"  Somebody  has  been  doing  a  great  deal  of  thinking 


MRS.  RENSSELAER  IS  SHOCKED     181 

around  here.  At  first  I  thought  It  was  Mr.  Breed, 
but  now  I  know  that  he  hires  his  thinking." 

Breed  himself  was  the  first  to  acknowledge  by  a 
chuckle  the  truth  of  this  remark. 

"  I  used  to  have  to  do  it  myself  when  I  was  poor," 
he  admitted ;  "  but  that  is  not  the  way  to  success. 
You  can't  get  rich  that  way,  any  more  than  you  can 
by  performing  all  your  own  manual  labor.  My 
success  is  built  on  an  unusual  ability  to  discover  men 
who  can  think  for  me.  But  you  two  go  ahead  and 
exchange  your  dreams;  I  am  interested." 

"  I  have  no  objection  to  telling  mine,"  said  Kel 
vin.  "  In  fact  I  am  eager  to  tell  them  because  it  is 
necessary.  I  want  to  concrete.  In  the  first  place 
I  want  to  do  a  little  trust-busting." 

"  I've  tried  it,  and  that's  why  I'm  here,"  laughed 
Rollins.  "  Trust-busting,  with  absolute  control  of 
every  mile  of  railroad  in  the  United  States,  is  the 
easiest  thing  in  the  world.  The  only  bother  is  that 
they  won't  hold  still  while  you  do  it.  My  present 
struggle  with  the  private-car  nuisance  has  opened 
my  eyes  to  what  will  happen  when  we  really  begin. 
Raymer,  Speed,  Melton  Sears  and  Company,  and  all 
the  others  have  been  making  life  a  burden  to  me. 
Strangely  enough,  they  don't  want  to  be  drawn  and 
quartered." 

"  I    hate    them,    every    one,"    suddenly    snapped 


182  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Breed.  "  A  dozen  times  they  tried  to  gobble  me  up 
in  the  early  days.  I  have  their  photographs,  too, 
waiting  to  be  checked  off." 

"  We'll  let  you  check  them  off  by  and  by,"  replied 
Rollins.  "  They  are  crippled  now,  but  it  was  a  task. 
Even  with  all  my  experience  I  didn't  appreciate  the 
full  extent  of  the  private-car  graft.  It  was  a  colos 
sal  trick,  serving  merely  as  a  disguise  for  excessive 
and  absurd  rebates.  The  refrigerating-car  system 
has  been  especially  obnoxious,  the  leading  idea  seem 
ing  to  have  been  to  charge  more  for  the  so-called 
rental  of  these  cars  than  the  amount  of  the  freight 
age." 

"  Well,  you  stopped  it,"  Kelvin  consoled  him. 

"  Yes,  I  stopped  it,"  admitted  Rollins  with  a  sigh, 
"  and  the  next  thing  that  happened  I  had  all  the  big 
packers  on  my  neck.  They  have  not  scared  me  any, 
even  though  they  are  making  veiled  threats;  but 
they  are  making  me  feel  sort  of  lonesome,  so  I  came 
to  Forest  Lakes  for  company." 

"  The  only  way  to  forget  the  attacks  of  the  pack 
ers,"  suggested  Kelvin,  "  is  to  attack  the  other 
monopolies.  Hamstring  them  the  first  stroke." 

"  Good! "  said  Rollins  with  relief;  "  it's  a  pleas 
ure  to  find  that  we  want  the  same  thing  without 
argument.  It's  simple  enough.  I've  merely  to 
establish  my  flat  freight-rate,  without  undue  reduc 
tion  for  quantity  and  without  rebate,  thus  giving  the 


MRS.  RENSSELAER  IS  SHOCKED     183 

small  shipper  an  equal  chance  with  the  big  one.  The 
interstate-commerce  law  may  then  go  out  of  com 
mission,  for  we  will  do  the  same  work  that  it  was 
designed  to  do,  but  in  which  it  failed.  The  provi 
sions  of  that  law  could  be  evaded  by  the  large  cor 
porations  working  in  conjunction  with  the  railroads ; 
but  there  will  be  no  evasion  of  my  rate-card,  which, 
by  the  way,  is  ready  to  issue." 

Kelvin  and  Breed  exchanged  glances. 

"  Don't  misunderstand  me,"  went  on  Rollins.  "  I 
consider  the  trusts  as  much  a  product  of  natural  law 
as  the  attraction  of  gravitation;  but  where  they 
attain  to  stupendous  fatness  merely  on  abuses  they 
cease  to  fulfil  the  need  which  brought  them  into 
existence.  The  greatest  abuse  of  which  the  monop 
olies  have  been  guilty  is  in  transportation.  Prob 
ably  more  than  half  of  the  freight  carried  is  shipped 
by  large  corporations,  nearly  every  ton  of  it  being 
subject  to  a  rebate  or  a  draw-back  of  some  sort; 
and  this  drain  on  the  railroads,  amounting  to  mil 
lions  every  year,  must  be  made  up  by  the  small 
shippers.  I  can  lower  the  present  ostensible  cost  of 
transportation  on  a  flat-rate  basis  and  make  more 
money  for  our  stock-holders." 

Breed  looked  at  Kelvin  inquiringly.  Phillip  nod 
ded  his  head. 

"  I  have  been  over  some  of  the  figures,"  said 
Breed.  "  The  aggregate  is  appalling,  but  I  am 


184  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

afraid  that,  after  all,  we  shall  be  compelled  to  allow 
certain  concessions  in  certain  places." 

Rollins  turned  slightly  pale.  "  I  have  been 
waiting  for  that  remark,"  he  said,  "  but  I  want 
you  to  understand  that  there  will  be  no  concession 
of  any  sort,"  and  he  brought  his  clenched  knuckles 
down,  not  noisily,  but  firmly,  upon  the  edge  of  the 
desk.  "  One  exception  I  grant  you,  and  that  is  the 
secret  rebate  on  Mr.  Breed's  bread,  wheat,  and 
cereal  shipments,  which  was  agreed  upon  in  the  first 
place.  Other  than  that,  absolutely  none !  I  pro 
pose  to  manage  these  united  railroads  unhampered, 
as  you  agreed  in  our  contract,  or  I  propose  to  create 
such  a  stench  that  public  opinion  will  revolt  at  the 
next  stock-holders'  meeting,  and  you  will  be  utterly 
unable  to  secure  proxies.  Without  proxies  you 
have  no  railroad  domination." 

Again  Breed  and  Kelvin  exchanged  glances. 
Again  Phillip  nodded  his  head. 

"  You  are  quite  right  in  your  contention,  Mr. 
Rollins,"  admitted  Kelvin.  "  But  you  misunder 
stand  us.  We  don't  intend  to  interfere  with  your 
absolute  control.  We  do  hope,  however,  to  have 
you  see  that  our  way  of  planning  is  right.  In  the 
end  we  hope  to  have  you  decide  for  yourself  that 
it  would  be  wise  to  make  certain  concessions  to  cer 
tain  corporations.  Until  then,  we  shall  not  even 
bother  you  with  advice.  In  the  meantime,  promul- 


MRS.  RENSSELAER  IS  SHOCKED     185 

gate  your  flat-rate  sheet,  and  we'll  stand  behind 
you." 

Rollins  studied  the  matter  over  for  some  time. 
Back  of  all  this  he  still  felt  was  an  ulterior  motive, 
but  they  gave  him  no  peg  upon  which  to  hang 
his  suspicion.  "  Very  well,"  said  he.  "  I  think 
that  I  shall  remain  at  Forest  Lakes  for  a  month 
or  so.  I  have  the  routine  management  of  the 
roads  in  good  order  now  and  want  to  be  quietly 
by  myself  to  figure  out  some  readjustments  in 
routes.  Now,  since  the  roads  are  consolidated, 
there  are  places  where  short  connecting  lines  of 
from  ten  to  thirty  miles  would  save  either  hauls  of 
from  one  hundred  to  three  hundred  miles,  or  grades 
that  are  most  expensive  in  operation.  Moreover," 
and  he  smiled,  "  I  had  just  as  lief  have  the  avalanche 
of  protests  come  to  me  here  as  in  New  York." 

"  Good  idea,"  agreed  Kelvin.  "  All  these  people 
will  be  sure  to  attempt  to  see  Mr.  Breed  after  they 
have  seen  you,  and  Mr.  Breed  would  instantly  refer 
them  back  to  you.  It  might  just  as  well  be  done  all 
in  one  trip." 

"  That  is  about  the  way  of  it,"  assented  Rollins, 
rising.  "  I  understand  by  this  that  you  will  neither 
promise  nor  attempt  to  make  any  concessions  to 
these  people." 

"  Absolutely  none,"  declared  Kelvin.  "  We'll 
give  you  our  bond  on  that." 


186  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Your  word  is  enough  at  present,"  replied  Rol 
lins  dryly.  "If  you  will  stick  to  the  letter  of  that 
I  am  perfectly  satisfied." 

After  Rollins  had  left  the  room  Kelvin  turned 
inquiringly  to  Breed.  "Will  he  come  in?"  he 
asked  anxiously. 

"  When  the  time  is  ripe,  yes,"  asserted  Breed  con 
fidently.  "  His  father  was  a  judge,  his  grandfather 
was  a  governor,  his  great-grandfather  had  a  power 
ful  place  in  the  cabinet  of  a  United  States  president, 
his  ancestors  from  the  time  of  the  Revolution  have 
been  honored  with  high  office.  It  is  in  his  blood, 
and  when  the  time  comes  he'll  listen." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

MR.  ROLLINS  SPENDS  TWO  EVENINGS  IN  UNWILLING 
EAVESDROPPING 

UPON  the  porch,  that  evening  after  dinner, 
sat  Mrs.  Rensselaer,  Herbert,  Kelvin,  and 
Lillian  Breed.  Rollins,  coming  quietly 
down-stairs,  stood  unobserved  in  the  doorway  for  a 
moment.  Mrs.  Rensselaer  was  holding  Phillip  in 
deliberate  conversation.  Herbert,  aroused  to  a  sense 
of  his  duty,  was  doing  his  best  to  entertain  Lillian. 
Rollins  smiled  cynically  as  he  saw  the  tableau  and 
realized  what  it  meant,  and,  turning,  walked  noise 
lessly  back  through  the  hall  and  out  the  side  door. 
Back  of  the  house  he  found  Elsie  White  just  com 
ing  down  the  kitchen  steps,  and  joined  her  with 
pleasure.  She  was  so  frank,  so  wholesome,  that  he 
always  had  an  indefinable  impression  of  being  the 
better  for  having  talked  with  her,  even  though  noth 
ing  of  moment  had  been  said. 

"  How  the  country  agrees  with  you !  "  he  observed 
as  he  joined  her.     "  You  were  looking  rather  pale 
when  I  first  saw  you  here,  but  you  have  found  some 
marvelous  rouge  among  these  trees." 
187 


1 88  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  I  like  it  very  much,"  she  admitted,  turning  his 
compliment  with  a  smile.  "  I  have  already  grown 
to  have  a  certain  amount  of  supercilious  pity  for 
city-dwellers." 

"  They  really  need  it,"  he  agreed  with  a  laugh ; 
"  and  to  prove  that  I  am  sincere  in  that  remark  I 
am  going  to  stop  with  you  for  a  month  or  so." 

"  Good !  "  she  exclaimed.  "  More  people  to  en 
joy  Forest  Lakes  is  all  that  we  need." 

"Do  they  never  have  any  visitors?"  Rollins  in 
quired.  "Week-end  parties  and  the  like?" 

"  Never,"  she  replied.  "  For  festivities  of  that 
sort  they  go  down  occasionally  to  Mr.  Breed's  other 
place  in  Virginia,  but  Mr.  Breed  is  very  jealous 
of  having  any  social  life  whatever  here." 

Rollins  pondered  that  fact  for  a  moment  in 
silence.  It  went  well  with  a  vague  impression  he 
had  that  Breed  meant  Forest  Lakes  to  be  the  ulti 
mate  business  capital  of  the  country.  They  were 
walking  down  toward  the  kitchen-garden  now,  at 
the  side  of  which,  back  among  the  trees,  stood  the 
cottage  of  Elsie's  father,  and,  talking  lightly  of 
many  things  of  no  consequence,  Rollins  strolled  by 
her  side  until  they  reached  the  cottage,  where  the 
garrulous  Mrs.  White  met  them  at  the  door. 

Mrs.  White  was  delighted  to  be  introduced  to  Mr. 
Rollins.  She  showed  it  in  the  expansive  smile 
which  spread  upon  her  wrinkled  face  and  disclosed 


UNWILLING  EAVESDROPPING      189 

her  yellow  teeth,  and  she  clasped  his  palm  most 
vigorously  with  a  toil-knotted  hand.  "  I'm  mighty 
glad  to  meet  you,  Mr.  Rollins,"  said  she.  "  I've 
heard  so  much  about  you." 

"  Nothing  but  good,  I  hope,"  said  Rollins 
pleasantly. 

"  No,  indeed,"  responded  Mrs.  White  emphatic 
ally.  "  Elsie  has  told  me  all  about  what  a  fine  man 
you  are;  and  fine  men  are  scarce  enough  any  place. 
Are  you  going  to  stay  long  this  time?  The  other 
times  you  never  stayed  more  than  two  or  three 
days." 

"  He  promises  us  a  month  at  least,  mother,"  Elsie 
hastened  to  say,  hoping  to  turn  the  conversation* 
"  Have  you  seen  father's  new  hot-houses,  Mr. 
Rollins?" 

"  That's  nice,"  asserted  Mrs.  White,  ignoring 
Elsie  completely.  "  It's  fine  to  have  a  lot  of  good- 
looking  men  around.  My  goodness,  I  tell  Elsie  she 
might  just  as  well  be  locked  up  in  jail  as  to  be  out 
here  where  there  are  no  men  folks  at  all.  She 
never  will  have  a  chance  to  get  married  if  she  stays 
here." 

Rollins  was  thankful  to  Elsie  that  she  laughed 
from  sheer  amusement  and  gave  him  a  chance  to 
join  her.  His  amusement,  and  also  his  repressed 
embarrassment  were  heightened  when,  after  Elsie 
had  invited  him  to  sit  on  the  vine-clad  little  front 


190  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

stoop,  Mrs.  White  suddenly  and  conspicuously  ab 
sented  herself.  The  two  were  silent  for  a  time, 
drinking  in  the  beauties  of  the  twilight  in  comfort 
able  content,  when  they  heard  approaching  voices. 

"  You  had  better  come  in  with  us,"  said  the  voice 
of  Blagg  from  just  beyond  the  corner  of  the  house. 
"  The  organization  now  numbers  more  than  a  quar 
ter  of  a  million,  all  of  the  downtrodden,  sworn  to 
serve  the  best  interests  of  the  poor." 

"  But  if  they  are  all  poor  people  what  can  they 
do  to  help  themselves?  "  objected  the  voice  of  Ben 
White. 

"  Rise  up  and  overwhelm  the  existing  condition 
of  things  by  the  mere  weight  of  numbers," 
responded  Blagg  quickly  and  tensely.  "  Moreover, 
the  organization  is  not  so  poor  as  you  might  think. 
It  has  quite  a  snug  little  sum  in  its  own  treasury, 
and  besides  that  I  know  where  there  are  a  billion  and 
a  half  dollars  in  cash  that  we  can  seize  upon  the 
moment  we  rise.  Look  here,  Mr.  White,  I  want  to 
explain  to  you  the  system  of  our  organization  — " 

By  the  sound  of  the  voices  they  were  slowly 
walking  away.  Elsie  turned  to  Rollins  with  a 
troubled  frown. 

"  I  don't  like  this  Mr.  Blagg,"  she  declared.  "  He 
talks  nearly  every  evening  with  father  about  some 
secret  society  he  wishes  him  to  join,  and  I  am 
afraid." 


UNWILLING  EAVESDROPPING      191 

Rollins  laughed  easily.  "  These  socialistic  organ 
izations  never  do  anything,"  he  told  her.  "  Chiefly 
they  get  together  and  talk  large,  and  sometimes  a 
few  of  the  more  rabid  of  them  make  a  public  dem 
onstration  which  is  immediately  quashed  by  the 
police." 

He  thought  no  more  of  the  matter  just  then,  but 
he  did  think  more  and  more  frequently  of  Elsie 
White  as  the  days  wore  on.  He  knew  that  he  had 
lost  caste  with  Mrs.  Rensselaer  the  first  time  she  saw 
him  with  Lillian's  maid,  but  he  did  not  care  to  hold 
caste  with  Mrs.  Rensselaer.  The  Rollins  men  folk 
had  held  it  as  their  right  to  marry  whom  they  chose, 
contenting  themselves  with  producing  illustrious 
sons  and  demanding  of  their  women  only  that  they 
be  pure.  It  was  almost  a  tradition  among  these  men 
to  woo  and  wed  healthy  "  daughters  of  the  people," 
so,  outside  of  his  business  hours,  Sumner  Rollins 
lived  as  he  liked,  enjoying  the  quiet  and  peace  of 
Forest  Lakes,  its  healthful  advantages,  its  oppor 
tunities  for  uninterrupted  planning;  and  he  began 
a  deliberate  courtship  of  Elsie  White. 

He  avoided  Lillian  Breed  from  fastidious  choice, 
but  he  spent  much  time  in  his  spare  hours  with 
Kelvin  and  young  Rensselaer.  He  boated,  rode, 
golfed,  and  took  long  walks  with  them,  and  for  his 
other  amusement  tried  to  fathom  the  tense  wills  and 
purposes  that  lay  about  him.  Henry  Breed's  mon- 


192  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

strous  desires  for  power  and  domination  he  took  to 
be  those  of  senility.  Kelvin's  dreams,  as  Rollins 
saw  them,  were  but  the  natural,  boundless  ambitions 
of  a  young  man  of  great  ability  joined  to  great  op 
portunity,  although  given  rein,  he  felt  that  they 
might  be  dangerous.  Mrs.  Rensselaer's  desire  to 
marry  her  nephew  to  Lillian  Breed  he  placed  in  the 
same  category  as  Mrs.  White's  desire  to  marry  Elsie 
to  some  man  of  wealth  and  station.  Blagg,  the  vi 
sionary,  was,  after  all,  the  most  curious  study  to  him. 
He  was  destined  a  second  time  on  this  visit  to  eaves 
drop  on  Blagg,  though  all  unpremeditatedly. 

One  drowsy  night  he  had  dropped  to  sleep  upon 
a  bench  on  the  porch,  in  the  shadow  of  a  climbing 
rose-bush.  He  was  awakened  by  the  scrape  of 
chairs,  and  became  conscious  of  low  and  tense  voices 
quite  near  him. 

"  You  too  could  love  as  I  love,"  said  the  voice  of 
Blagg,  trembling  with  repressed  intensity ;  "  could 
love  with  seething  brain,  with  pounding  pulses,  with 
a  heart  the  throbs  of  which  would  hurt  and  hurt  and 
hurt!" 

"  You  are  almost  poetical  in  your  anatomy  of  the 
emotions,"  drawled  the  contemptuous  voice  of  Lil 
lian  Breed.  "  I  had  no  idea  that  the  love  of  money 
could  affect  one  in  that  precise  way." 

"  You  don't  mean  that  slur,"  he  protested  angrily. 
"  You  know  that  if  you  had  not  a  dollar  I  would  still 


UNWILLING  EAVESDROPPING      193 

have  for  you  this  hunger  that  starves  me,  this  thirst 
that  parches  me,  this  flame  that  burns  me,  this  agony 
that  makes  me  cry  out  in  the  night." 

The  torture  that  was  in  his  tone  was  so  apparent 
and  so  convincing  that  Rollins,  not  daring  to  move 
lest  he  betray  his  presence  embarrassingly,  felt  pro 
found  pity  for  the  man.  A  trace  of  that  pity  seemed 
for  the  moment  to  pass  to  Lillian  too,  for  she  was 
silent  for  some  little  space. 

"  You  ought  not  to  encourage  yourself  in  that 
attitude,"  she  said  with  less  contempt.  "  You  are 
making  a  breach  in  the  confidence  that  is  placed  in 
you  here." 

"  I  would  make  a  breach  in  the  wall  of  Heaven," 
he  retorted  passionately,  "  I  would  break  and 
destroy  it  utterly,  would  grind  it  to  atoms,  would 
scatter  its  dust  to  the  four  winds,  if  by  that  I  might 
win  you :  and  you  could  love,  I  tell  you,  as  madly  as 
I  do." 

"Yes,"  she  admitted  slowly;  "but  not  you." 

"  I  know,"  he  responded  bitterly ;  "  but  you  are 
wasting  your  affections.  Kelvin  cares  for  no  one 
but  himself." 

"  Who  told  you  to  speak  his  name  ?  Don't  make 
me  hate  you." 

"  I'd  rather  that  than  indifference,"  he  declared ; 
"  so  hate  me,  for  hate,  at  least,  is  an  emotion.  As 
for  Kelvin,  I  will  not  be  silent  about  him,  for  I 


194  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

think  you're  mistaken  about  even  yourself.  It  is  not 
Kelvin  to  whom  you  are  attracted,  but  the  force  he 
represents.  The  power  to  achieve,  that  is  what  you 
worship ;  but  in  your  dreams  of  the  power  he  might 
acquire  you  are  blind  to  other  possibilities.  I  too 
can  give  you  power.  Join  with  me,  and  future  his 
torians  will  acclaim  us  as  the  great  liberators  of  the 
chained  and  manacled  American  public." 

"  Splendid ! "  she  exclaimed,  laughing  lightly. 
"  I  didn't  even  know  they  needed  liberation." 

"  You  have  much  to  learn,"  he  returned.  "  Do 
you  know  that  the  army  of  the  unemployed  now 
numbers  nearly  a  million  ?  Do  you  know  that  there 
is  an  organization  among  them  and  their  more  for 
tunate  brothers,  aggregating  a  quarter  of  a  million, 
which  is  sworn  to  change  the  existing  order  of 
things  so  that  every  man  shall  have  an  equal  oppor 
tunity?  You  spoke  of  money  a  while  ago.  Well, 
for  itself  I  despise  money,  but  for  what  it  can  do  for 
the  cause  of  humanity  I  love  it.  Listen  a  moment. 
I  could  gain  control  of  this  organization  and  increase 
it  to  ten  million  if  I  had  your  opportunities  to  com 
mand  a  billion  and  a  half  dollars  of  cash." 

"  Of  what  are  you  talking?  "  Her  tone  now  was 
a  frightened  one. 

"  The  possibilities  of  a  new  and  glorious  order  of 
things,  a  new  social  system,  a  new  form  of  govern- 


UNWILLING  EAVESDROPPING      195 

ment  which  shall  guarantee  to  every  man  an  equal 
distribution  of  earning  capacity.  I  need  to  rally 
ten  million  men  to  the  new  cause.  It  will  cost  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  per  man.  That  amounts 
to  a  billion  and  a  half  of  dollars.  You  have,  let  us 
say,  influential  friends  who  have  plenty  of  money, 
solid  cash.  Join  me,  help  me  to  raise  this  money, 
help  me  to  carry  through  to  its  glorious  conclusion 
th's  enormous  benefit  to  humanity,  and  no  king  and 
queen  will  have  a  firmer  and  a  more  honored  place 
in  history  than  we  shall  have." 

"  It  is  a  dream  of  folly,"  she  protested.  "  You 
would  expend  all  this  enormous  amount  of  money, 
if  you  had  it,  in  promoting  only  a  new  reign  of 
terror." 

"  By  no  means,"  he  declared,  and  laughed.  "  My 
ten  million  men  would  need  but  to  show  their  teeth 
and  it  would  all  be  over.  There  need  not  be  a  blow 
struck.  Of  course,  if  any  one  came  in  our  way  he 
would  have  to  suffer." 

The  voice  of  Mrs.  Rensselaer  broke  in  upon  them, 
peremptorily  calling  upon  Lillian  for  some  music. 

"  Coming,"  replied  Lillian.  She  turned  to  Blagg. 
"  I  must  go  in  now,"  she  said  to  him.  "  Your  talk 
is  perfectly  silly  but  it  is  amusing,  too.  I  find  it 
quite  —  curious  —  and  interesting." 

She  hurried  into  the  house,  leaving  Blagg  alone 


196  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

on  the  porch.  As  soon  as  she  had  gone,  Blagg 
stepped  down  into  the  grounds  and  disappeared  in 
the  woods,  upon  one  of  those  lonely,  passion-torn 
walks  in  which  he  so  often  indulged  at  night.  Rol 
lins  sat  quite  still  and  thought  for  a  long,  long  time. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

MR.  ROLLINS  LEARNS  OF  THE  REMARKABLE  AFFINITY 
BETWEEN  BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS 

THE  flat  freight-rate  was  a  tremendous  sen 
sation.  The  astute  gentlemen  of  the 
newspaper  fraternity  immediately  fath 
omed  its  sweeping  possibilities.  Simple  as  it 
sounded,  it  meant  an  industrial  revolution  more  far- 
reaching  than  any  innovation  in  a  century.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  the  answer,  if  not  the  answer  itself, 
to  the  tremendous  problem  of  what  to  do  with  the 
trusts.  Indefatigable  workers  of  the  Fourth  Estate 
gleaned  from  hundreds  of  hidden  sources  a  mass  of 
statistics  upon  freight  abuses  startling  even  to  Breed 
and  Kelvin,  even  to  Sumner  Rollins  himself.  With 
the  customary  hysteria  of  the  American  press,  which 
is  but  a  justifiable  deflection  of  the  customary 
hysteria  of  the  American  people,  the  new  flat  rate, 
within  a  week,  was  hailed  as  the  great  Utopian  reali 
zation,  the  one  supreme  act  which  was  to  level  all 
distinctions,  which  was  to  place  all  business  upon  an 
equal  footing,  which  was  to  cure  all  the  economic  ills 
of  the  country!  And  who  was  back  of  this  huge 
197 


198  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

philanthropic  move?  Rollins,  Sumner  Rollins,  the 
Napoleon  of  the  railroad  world.  And  who  was  back 
of  Sumner  Rollins  ?  Henry  Breed.  As  France  had 
been  behind  Napoleon,  the  strength  of  his  arm  and 
his  will  and  his  mighty  ambition,  so  Breed  was  be 
hind  Rollins.  Yet  another  step,  who  was  back  of 
Breed  ?  Phillip  Kelvin.  There  was  the  man !  Until 
Kelvin  had  come,  Breed  had  done  none  of  these 
radical  things.  Since  Kelvin  had  appeared  upon  the 
scene,  Breed  had  broken  up  the  Stock  Exchange,  he 
had  reduced  the  price  of  bread  to  cost,  he  had  disin 
tegrated  the  Unified  Steel  Corporation,  he  had  re 
moved  the  unjust  discrimination  of  the  railroads; 
ergo  Kelvin  was  really  the  big  force  of  all  this 
reformation. 

Kelvin!  Great  was  Kelvin!  Column  upon 
column  was  printed  about  him,  his  past  life,  his  phe 
nomenal  rise,  his  tremendous  executive  ability. 
Scarcely  a  paper  of  any  note  but  carried  a  Sunday 
feature  about  him.  His  portrait  was  printed  far  and 
wide,  and  he  leaped  into  the  lime-light  of  publicity 
almost  instantaneously.  He  became  a  national  fig 
ure  overnight,  as  it  were.  Men  talked  about  him  at 
clubs,  in  cafes,  in  street-cars,  in  their  homes,  wher 
ever  they  were  congregated.  Even  men  of  large 
affairs  were  impressed  with  Kelvin,  and  thought  him 
worth  studying,  as  they  had  good  cause;  for  any 
man  so  possessed  of  power  as  to  alter  apparently  the 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS          199 

entire  commercial  system  of  the  country  by  a  mere 
word  of  direction  was  a  rich  subject  for  investiga 
tion.  About  the  flat  rate,  however,  they  merely 
winked.  It  was  a  splendid  piece  of  buncombe  for 
the  public;  it  was  a  splendid  weapon  which  would 
give  Breed  power  of  life  and  death  over  any  business 
upon  which  he  chose  to  exert  it;  but  that  it  meant 
just  what  it  stated  on  the  surface  was  past  belief. 

Nevertheless  it  was  better  to  have  a  very  definite 
understanding,  and  as  such  matters  were  somewhat 
too  delicate  for  correspondence,  which  never  dies,  a 
succession  of  suave  gentlemen,  representing  various 
large  interests,  trailed  Rollins  from  his  New  York 
offices  down  to  Forest  Lakes  to  meet,  in  succession, 
quite  rude  shocks.  There  was  positively  no  satisfac 
tion  to  be  had  from  Rollins.  The  flat  rate  was  a 
flat  rate,  and  it  meant  exactly  what  it  said.  From 
Rollins  they  appealed  to  Breed,  and  Kelvin  sent 
them  back  to  Rollins.  Rollins  sent  them  away  in 
dumb  astonishment.  Kelvin  managed  to  hint  to 
these  hired  intermediaries  as  they  departed  that  it 
would  be  useless  for  any  other  than  the  most  impor 
tant  men  in  the  business  to  make  this  pilgrimage; 
consequently  the  various  Mahomets  came  to  the 
mountain. 

The  first  of  these  was  John  G.  Hepperdon,  the 
head  of  the  petroleum  trust,  one  of  the  most  perfect 
combines  in  existence,  and  one  .which  had  been  built 


200  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

almost  entirely  upon  rebates  and  freight  concessions 
of  various  sorts.  Mr.  Hepperdon,  a  large  gentleman 
whose  neck  was  the  same  size  as  his  head,  and  who 
wore  curious  purple  pouches  under  his  eyes,  was  a 
trifle  impatient  over  the  necessity  of  having  to  make 
such  a  trip,  and  was  insistent  upon  coming  to  a  crisp 
working  basis  at  once.  For  that  reason  he  did  not 
go  to  Mr.  Rollins  at  all.  He  very  calmly  walked 
over  that  gentleman's  figurative  head  to  Mr.  Breed. 

"  Hello,  Breed,"  said  he,  walking  in  upon  that 
gentleman  as  he  sat  in  his  library  poring  over  a  set 
of  photographs,  one  of  which  happened  to  be  Mr. 
Hepperdon's.  "  I  don't  see  why  you  couldn't  hold 
up  Sawyer  as  well  as  me.  Sawyer's  a  good,  close- 
mouthed  man.  There's  no  need  for  such  infernal 
secrecy  about  all  this  thing.  Let's  get  down  to  blunt 
bed  rock  on  this  freight  proposition.  How  much 
of  a  rebate  are  we  to  get,  and  what  percentage  of  it 
goes  to  you  individually  ?  " 

"  Glad  to  see  you,  Hepperdon,"  said  Breed.  "  It 
has  been  a  long  time  since  I  had  the  pleasure  of  a 
brush  with  you.  Where  have  you  been  keeping 
yourself  so  long?  " 

"  Just  got  back  from  Europe,"  said  Hepperdon, 
folding  his  puffy  hands  comfortably  over  his  great 
est  girth;  "but  how  about  this  freight  business?  I 
have  to  get  back  on  the  next  train." 

"  Out  of  my  hands  entirely,"  said  Breed.   "  You'll 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS          201 

have  to  see  Mr.  Rollins,"  and  he  rang  for  Kelvin,  to 
whom  he  gravely  introduced  Hepperdon.  "  Mr. 
Kelvin,  take  Mr.  Hepperdon  up  and  introduce  him 
to  Mr.  Rollins/'  said  he. 

Kelvin  smilingly  did  so,  and,  having  introduced 
the  two  gentlemen,  quietly  withdrew. 

To  Rollins,  Hepperdon  made  much  the  same  sort 
of  a  beginning  as  with  Breed. 

"  The  rate  means  precisely  what  it  says,"  de 
clared  Rollins. 

"  Of  course,  of  course,"  said  Hepperdon  sooth 
ingly  ;  "  but  how  are  we  going  to  arrange  the  rebate  ? 
I  suppose  you  have  some  new  plan  for  taking  care 
of  it." 

"  There  is  to  be  no  rebate,"  declared  Rollins. 
"  Why  should  there  be  a  rebate  ?  You  have  to  ship 
over  our  roads,  and  you  may  be  thankful  that  we  are 
making  only  a  fair,  percentage-yielding  rate.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  previously  published  rate  has 
been  lowered." 

"  That  is  exactly  what  I  don't  like  about  it,"  in 
terrupted  Hepperdon,  the  sparse  gray  hairs  upon  his 
cowlick  standing  out  in  several  directions  as  he  con 
tracted  his  scalp  in  his  puzzled  impatience.  "  You 
haven't  set  your  rate  high  enough  for  a  good  margin 
of  profit  from  the  small  shippers." 

"  The  margin  of  profit  on  all  shipments  is  to  be 
exactly  the  same,"  replied  Rollins.  "  Just  disabuse 


202  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

your  mind,  Mr.  Hepperdon,  of  the  idea  that  there  is 
to  be  a  concession  of  any  sort.  There  is  no  use  in 
discussing  the  matter  because  this  is  flat  and  final." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  ?  "  demanded  Hepperdon, 
rising  upon  his  ponderous  cylindrical  legs  and  wav 
ing  one  fat  hand  in  nervous  aimlessness. 

"  I  mean  it  absolutely." 

Hepperdon  studied  him  in  silence  for  a  while. 
There  was  no  doubt  that  Rollins  meant  precisely 
what  he  said. 

"  Very  well,"  snapped  Hepperdon.  "  Within  two 
weeks  there  will  be  a  special  bill  introduced  into  the 
United  States  House  of  Representatives,  dissolving 
your  railroad  combination." 

Hepperdon  was  waddling  out  of  the  house  fum 
ing,  without  stopping  to  make  any  further  adieus  to 
Breed,  when  Kelvin  stopped  him  in  the  hall. 

"  Mr.  Breed  would  like  to  see  you  for  a  few  min 
utes  before  you  go." 

Hepperdon  looked  at  him  for  a  moment  and  then, 
with  a  grunt  of  dawning  comprehension,  followed. 

"  Hepperdon,  about  how  much  political  influence 
do  you  actually  control  ?  "  asked  Breed. 

"  More  than  any  one  aggregation  of  business  in 
terests  in  the  United  States,"  declared  Hepperdon, 
placing  his  hands  upon  his  round  knees  and  leaning 
his  weight  impressively  forward.  "  I  own  exclu 
sively  a  cabinet  officer,  five  United  States  senators, 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS         203 

more  than  a  dozen  United  States  representatives  and 
half  a  dozen  governors,  and  minor  officials,  state 
legislators  and  the  like,  running  up  into  the  hun 
dreds.  Besides  that,  I  have  partnership  interests  in 
connection  with  other  large  commercial  forces,  in 
two  or  three  times  as  many  more  political  leaders." 

"  That  tallies  very  well  with  our  estimate,"  said 
Breed.  "  We  may  want  to  borrow  this  influence  of 
yours  a  little  later  on,  Hepperdon.  In  the  meantime, 
suppose  you  just  go  ahead  and  pay  this  flat  rate  of 
Rollins'  and  say  nothing.  Leave  it  to  me." 

"  Sure,"  said  Hepperdon.  "  I  knew  there  must 
be  a  nigger  in  the  woodpile  some  place.  You're 
looking  very  well  indeed,  Breed.  I  had  heard  that 
you  were  very  much  under  the  weather.  Is  your 
golfing  doing  you  any  good  ?  "  And  Hepperdon  set 
himself  down  quite  comfortably  to  smoke  a  cigar 
and  chat  until  it  was  time  for  him  to  start  for  his 
train. 

The  next  day  brought  Raymer,  rawboned  and 
wooden  featured  but  fairly  oily  in  his  suavity,  and 
the  head  of  the  beef  trust;  and  Valentine,  little  and 
»screechy  and  marked  with  countless  black  freckles, 
and  the  head  of  the  woolen  combine.  They  came 
down  on  the  train  together,  discussing  the  matter 
very  thoroughly  on  the  way,  and  together  they  came 
in  to  talk  with  Breed.  Mr.  Breed  was  very  glad  in- 
'deed  to  see  them,  and,  denying  absolutely  that  he 


204  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

had  anything  to  do  with  railroad  affairs,  passed  them 
on  to  Rollins,  who  assured  them  with  great  firm 
ness  that  the  flat  rate  was  a  flat  rate,  and  that  it 
knew  no  friends  or  foes.  In  unison,  and  garnished 
with  many  rugged  expletives,  Mr.  Raymer  and  Mr. 
Valentine  declared  to  Mr.  Rollins  that  they  would 
invoke  special  legislation  which  would  put  his  rail 
road  monopoly  out  of  the  business,  dissolve  it  and 
separate  it  into  healthy  competition,  scatter  it  into 
easily  handled  fragments,  and,  incidentally,  remove 
Mr.  Rollins  from  any  and  all  spheres  of  activity 
whatsoever,  for  ever  and  a  day  —  and  then  some ! 
On  their  way  out  Kelvin  led  them  in  to  see  Mr. 
Breed,  who,  with  Kelvin's  assistance,  tabulated  Mr. 
Raymer's  and  Mr.  Valentine's  legislative  control. 

The  ensuing  two  weeks  were  taken  up  by  a  suc 
cession  of  such  incidents  as  these,  and  at  the  conclu 
sion  of  that  time  Representative  Oswald  introduced 
into  the  House  a  bill  providing  that  no  railroad 
should  own  stock  in  another  one ;  that  no  man  should 
vote  control,  by  proxy  or  ownership,  in  more  than 
one  of  two  or  more  competing  roads;  and  that  no 
railroad  official  should  hold  either  office  or  stock  in 
another  line  of  rails  which  reached  between  any  two 
same  shipping  points.  This  was  the  straw,  or  rather 
the  bale  of  straw,  which  snapped  Rollins'  already 
highly  strung  nervous  tension.  The  continuous 
threatening  of  various  interests  that  had  sought  to 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS         205 

exert  pressure  upon  him  had  begun  to  wear  him 
down,  and  now,  when  the  news  of  this  move  was 
brought  to  him,  he  came  to  Breed  and  Kelvin  in 
much  distress.  Really,  it  was  not  so  much  a  sur 
prise  to  Kelvin  and  Breed  as  it  might  have  been 
for  it  was  they  who  had  instructed  Hepperdon  as  to 
the  psychological  moment  in  which  to  have  Oswald 
introduce  his  bill. 

"  I  expected  nothing  else,"  said  Breed,  glancing 
at  the  Marconigram  and  handing  it  to  Kelvin. 
"  You  know  we  told  you  in  the  first  place  that  it 
might  be  necessary  to  make  certain  concessions." 

"  Never !  "  declared  Rollins.  "  We'll  fight  them 
to  the  last  ditch!  They  have  introduced  this  bill, 
but  they  have  not  yet  passed  it!" 

"  But  they  will  the  minute  it  comes  to  a  vote," 
said  Kelvin.  "  Come  up  to  my  room  and  let  me 
show  you  a  diagram,  Mr.  Rollins." 

In  his  office  Phillip  displayed  a  curious  sheet  of 
cardboard,  almost  as  large  as  the  top  of  his  desk, 
upon  which  the  name  of  every  senator  and  every 
United  States  representative  was  set  down.  A  few 
were  marked  in  red  as  men  who  were  not  for  sale, 
but  the  rest,  the  vast  majority,  were  divided  into 
groups,  one  "  owned  "  by  Hepperdon,  another  by 
Raymer,  another  by  Valentine,  etc.,  and  the  names 
were  in  some  places  cross-grouped,  showing  that 
certain  of  the  senators  and  certain  of  the  representa- 


206  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

tives  served  several  non-conflicting  interests.  The 
diagram  told  at  a  glance  precisely  how  every  man 
would  vote  on  this  bill. 

"  This  thing  is  incredible,"  declared  Rollins. 
"  Such  a  state  of  affairs  can  not  exist." 

"  Such  a  state  of  affairs  does  exist,"  asserted  Kel 
vin.  "  You  may  close  your  eyes  and  touch  a  pencil- 
point  in  succession  upon  any  half-dozen  names  there, 
not  ringed  with  red.  Wire  those  gentlemen  and  ask 
them  to  tell  you  by  to-morrow  how.  they  intend  to 
vote  on  this  bill." 

"  I'll  do  it,"  said  Rollins, 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

MR.    BLAGG    CONTRIVES    A    MELODRAMATIC    INCIDENT 
FOR  THE  AMBITIOUS  KELVIN. 

Y  afternoon  Rollins  had  answers  to  all  his 
wires.  Four  declared  without  reserve  that 
they  were  for  the  bill  —  on  principle.  Two 
answered  evasively. 

"  It  looks  bad,  but  we  mustn't  allow  this  state  of 
affairs,"  protested  Rollins.  "  We  must  stop  it  in 
some  way  or  other.  We  must  use  counter-strategy." 

"  There  is  only  one  that  I  know  of,"  stated  Kel 
vin  quietly.  "  Concessions." 

"  I  will  resign  from  my  management  before  I 
make  a  solitary  concession !  "  declared  Rollins. 

"  Would  you  pay  five  thousand  dollars  for  a 
building-lot  if  you  knew  that  you  could  immediately 
sell  it  for  ten  ?  "  demanded  Kelvin. 

"Certainly,"  replied  Rollins;  "but  I  don't  see 
where  the  illustration  applies." 

"  In  just  this  way,"  explained  Kelvin.  "  With 
concessions  buy  legislators  from  enough  of  these 
men  to  secure  legislative  control,  and  go  after  the 
balance.  This  gives  your  flat  rate  pretty  wide  scope, 

207, 


208  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Rollins,  and  it  protects  us  until  we  can  control  our 
own  legislation.  We  have,  Mr.  Breed  and  myself, 
as  you  must  have  appreciated  by  now,  certain  large 
ideas  of  reform.  We  believe  precisely  as  you  do, 
that  good  business  and  justice  are  compatible.  We 
intend  to  put  the  whole  country  on  that  plane,  but  to 
do  it  we  must  use  whatever  weapons  we  find  shaped 
to  our  hand.  There  never  was  a  more  just  and 
equitable  contrivance  than  your  flat  freight-rate,  but 
you  can  see  at  once  what  powerful  interests  are 
arrayed  against  it.  We  must  conciliate  those  inter 
ests  in  order  to  cripple  them.  We  will  rent  Hepper- 
don's  and  Raymer's  senators  until  we  can  buy  them 
or  supplant  them  with  some  of  our  own.  Then  we 
will  make  our  own  legislation,  and  we  will  guar 
antee  that  you  shall  have  a  share  in  it." 

Rollins  was  silent  for  a  long  time. 

"  It  is  a  very  simple  proposition,  Rollins,"  urged 
Breed.  '  You  are  only  granting  these  concessions 
in  order  to  be  able,  later  on,  to  refuse  them." 

"  Doing  evil  that  good  may  come,  eh?  "  laughed 
Rollins  a  little  uneasily. 

"  Put  it  that  way  if  you  like,"  responded  Breed 
dryly,  "  but  when  you  are  president  of  the  United 
States,  with  the  House  of  Representatives  and  the 
Senate  in  thorough  sympathy  with  you  — " 

"  President !  "  exclaimed  Rollins. 

"  Yes,  president,"  returned  Breed.    "  I  don't  mind 


A  MELODRAMATIC  INCIDENT      209 

telling  you  our  slate  now.  When,  we  first  intimated 
that  you  might  have  to  make  some  concessions,  this 
thing  was  all  mapped  out,  but  we  did  not  argue  w?ith 
you  at  that  time.  We  wanted  you  to  go  ahead  and 
see  for  yourself  just  how  necessary  our  course  of 
action  was.  Our  program  includes,  this  coming 
campaign,  running  Kelvin  for  president  and  your 
self  for  vice-president.  Mr.  Kelvin  wants  but  four 
years  as  president.  At  the  expiration  of  his  term 
of  office  we  intend  to  put  you  up  for  president. 

"  And  we'll  elect  you !  "  supplemented  Kelvin 
confidently. 

"  President !  "  repeated  Rollins  in  a  daze. 

They  had  touched  the  right  cord.  From  back 
through  his  heredity  there  came  a  strain  of  rever 
ence  for  the  honor  of  high  public  office,  and  that 
strain  was  not  to  be  denied.  To  be  president ! 

"  The  plans  are  under  way,"  stated  Breed.  "  We 
have  had  them  secretly  at  work  for  a  year.  We  are 
gradually  and  quietly  obtaining  control  of  the  polit 
ical  situation.  To-day  we  could  almost  do  without 
Hepperdon  and  Raymer  and  the  others,  but  not 
quite.  What  do  you  suppose  became  of  all  the  so- 
called  '  railroad  senators  '  ?  Did  you  ever  wonder 
why  they  bothered  you  so  little?  Well,  I  took  care 
of  them  —  added  them  to  my  group.  Mr.  Rollins, 
I  am  an  old  man."  Breed's  hand  strayed  to  the  cor 
ner  of  his  table  where  lay  his  well-thumbed  old 


210  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Bible.  He  clasped  it  in  his  hand  and  pressed  it 
against  his  body.  "  I  am  an  old  man,  an  old,  old 
man,"  he  repeated.  "  I  have  done  some  evil  in  my 
life,  I  suppose,  but  all  this  time  I  have  been  acquir 
ing  power;  more  power  than  any  man  in  the  world 
has  ever  possessed,  and  I  intend  to  use  this  power 
for  good.  I  intend  to  upset  the  very  conditions  by 
which  I  gained  this  power;  for  it  is  the  fault  of  our 
economic  system  that  I  have  so  wonderfully  suc 
ceeded.  This  fault  is  to  be  remedied.  For  the  rest 
of  my  life  I  intend  to  exert  this  great  power  for 
nothing  but  good;  to  exert  it  in  making  a  readjust 
ment  of  our  living  conditions  so  that  neither  great 
wealth  nor  great  poverty  shall  be  possible.  The 
Lord  hath  set  the  time  for  this  great  day,  and  mine 
is  the  appointed  hand !  " 

Both  men  looked  at  him  curiously.  He  was  not 
now  addressing  them,  but  gazing  intently  into  the 
fireplace.  The  pupils  of  his  eyes  had  expanded,  and 
they  began  to  glitter  with  an  unwonted  fire.  Doctor 
Zelphan,  who  had  been  sitting  quietly  in  the  corner, 
came  hurriedly  over  and  put  his  hand  upon  Breed. 
The  door  opened,  and  Lillian  came  in.  She  had  been 
about  to  ask  some  trivial  question,  but  seeing  that 
look  in  her  grandfather's  face,  she  too  hurried  over 
to  him  and  put  her  hand  upon  his  other  shoulder. 
At  Zelphan's  touch  Breed  had  given  no  sign,  but  to 
the  touch  of  Lillian  he  responded  instantly.  The 


"  The  Lord  hath  appointed  the  time  for  His  great  reform 


A  MELODRAMATIC  INCIDENT       211 

rigidity  of  his  features  relaxed;  he  shook  his  head 
as  one  shakes  off  drowsiness,  and  then  looked  up  at 
Kelvin  with  a  resumption  of  his  old  shrewd  twinkle. 

"  So  that's  the  program,"  he  said,  in  quite  a  nat 
ural  tone  of  voice.  "  Next  year  we'll  run  the  ticket 
of  Kelvin  and  Rollins." 

Rollins  caught  his  breath  with  a  sharp  little  in 
take.  "  It  is  a  high  honor,"  he  said. 

Kelvin  laughed  lightly.  "  No  honor  could  be  too 
high  for  my  greed  of  power,"  he  said  in  a  half- 
jesting  tone.  "  I  am  still  of  the  opinion  that  I 
should  like  to  be  emperor." 

Lillian  looked  up  at  him,  smiling.  "  And  I  still 
hold  to  my  original  declaration  that  if  you  are  I 
want  to  be  empress,"  she  declared. 

Something  clattered  at  Kelvin's  feet.  Startled, 
they  all  looked  down.  It  was  a  bright  steel  dagger. 

"  Beg  your  pardon,"  said  Blagg,  stooping  down  to 
get  it.  He  had  come  in  unobserved  with  a  message. 
"  It  was  very  awkward  of  me.  As  it  happens,  this 
is  only  Mr.  Kelvin's  paper-knife,  which  I  acciden 
tally  brushed  off  the  corner  of  his  desk,"  and  he  held 
up  the  trinket,  which  was  familiar  to  all  of  them. 
"  Only  a  paper-knife,  but,  after  all,  it  is  a  dagger, 
too,  and  rather  an  unlucky  omen  to  drop  at  the  feet 
of  a  man  who  declares  his  desire  to  be  emperor  of 
the  United  States !  " 

The  incident  was  passed  over  as  of  no  moment. 


212  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Afterward,  when  Rollins  and  Phillip  were  once 
more  going  over  Kelvin's  illuminative  diagram  of 
senatorial  control,  Rollins  laughed  in  keen  amuse 
ment. 

"  Your  man  Blagg  is  as  good  as  vaudeville,"  he 
observed.  "  At  first  I  was  inclined  to  take  him 
rather  seriously,  but  he's  too  melodramatic  to  mean 
anything.  I  happened  to  see  that  paper-knife  inci 
dent  out  of  the  corner  of  my  eye.  Blagg  deliber 
ately  pushed  it  off  the  desk  to  fall  at  your  feet." 

Kelvin  joined  in  the  laugh.  "  He's  absolutely 
harmless,"  he  said;  "but  he's  an  excellent  wireless 
operator." 

Shortly  afterward  the  paper-knife  disappeared 
from  Kelvin's  desk,  but  no  one  noticed  its  absence, 
nor  would  any  one  have  given  the  matter  a  second 
thought  if  he  had  missed  it. 

The  argument  with  Rollins  had  but  one  possible 
result;  Hepperdon  and  Raymer  got  their  conces 
sions,  as  did  a  few  others.  The  list  of  those  who 
should  be  thus  favored  in  exchange  for  their  politi 
cal  control  had  been  carefully  selected,  according 
to  Kelvin's  diagram,  to  make  as  few  concessions  as 
possible,  compatible  with  the  securing  of  a  majority 
of  legislative  power.  Raymer  had  originally  ap 
peared  as  representing  the  entire  packers'  combine, 
but  when  the  matter  was  put  squarely  up  to  him  he 
promptly  left  Speed,  Melton  Sears  and  Company, 


A  MELODRAMATIC  INCIDENT      213 

and  the  rest  of  them  out  in  the  cold,  took  a  comfort 
able  rebate  for  his  own  shipments,  and  let  them 
pay  the  full  freight.  It  was  excellent  work,  and  it 
let  him  enlarge  his  plant  at  once.  Valentine  was 
left  out  entirely,  Kelvin,  with  a  smile,  pointing  out 
that  Breed  himself  controlled  all  but  one  of  the  men 
whom  Valentine  claimed  as  his  own.  The  Oswald 
bill  was  killed  in  committee,  and  the  fact  that  this 
bill  was  never  heard  of  again  was  passed  over  by  the 
papers  in  the  greater  sensation  of  the  desperate  and 
losing  fight  that  was  being  waged  against  Breed's 
railroad  consolidation  by  the  disgruntled  business 
interests  which  could  not  escape  from  the  "  oppres 
sion  "  of  the  flat  rate. 

Valentine  was  one  of  the  loudest  objectors.  His 
business  was  ruined,  and  he  attempted  to  revive  the 
Oswald  bill  by  the  introduction  of  a  similar  one. 
The  legislative  gentlemen  who  drew  their  pay  from 
him  made  a  great  public  ado  about  the  introduction 
of  this  bill,  but  it  died  in  committee  precisely  as  the 
other  one  had  died.  Within  six  months  the  woolen- 
mills  combine  resolved  itself  into  its  original  mem 
bers.  It  had  been  a  loose  organization  at  best. 
There  had  been  warring  elements  within  it  that 
might  ultimately  have  torn  it  asunder,  but  Kelvin's 
publicity  bureau,  which  was  conducted  by  the  New 
Jersey  offices  of  Breed's  United  Food  Company, 
seized  upon  this  as  the  first  shining  example  of  what 


214  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

the  flat  rate  had  done  for  the  public,  and  Kelvin 
went  soaring  again  in  the  public  esteem.  The  mills 
of  the  woolen  combine  had  once  more  become  inde 
pendent  concerns,  competing  with  one  another  with 
the  double  effect  of  raising  the  price  of  wool  and 
lowering  the  price  of  the  finished  article,  the  farmers 
and  the  public  being  the  great  beneficiaries ;  and  Rol 
lins  had  done  this,  with  Breed  back  of  him  as  the 
momentum,  and  back  of  them  both  Kelvin,  as  the 
dynamic  force.  Great  was  Kelvin!  Then  the  beef 
combine  came  to  blows.  Raymer,  as  he  well  might, 
was  underselling  the  other  packers  and  gobbling  up 
their  trade.  Some  of  this  internal  war  leaked  out, 
and  again  the  flat  rate,  Breed,  Rollins,  and  Mighty 
Kelvin  were  heroes!  The  Unified  Steel  Corpora 
tion,  the  woolen  combine,  and  the  beef  trust !  There 
was  a  record  over  which  to  crow !  Who  now  was 
the  friend  of  the  people?  Why,  Breed!  And  Rol 
lins!  And  Kelvin,  Great  Kelvin! 

But  Kelvin  had  long  since  absented  himself  from 
Forest  Lakes,  leaving  behind  him  no  thought  of  any 
interest  that  might  be  there,  save  as  it  concerned  his 
own  boundless  aims.  The  dreams  of  two  women, 
one  dark  and  one  fair,  followed  him,  but  he  would 
not  have  cared,  now,  if  he  had  known.  He  left  the 
field  to  his  rivals  —  Mrs.  Rensselaer  for  Herbert, 
and  Rollins  for  himself  —  with  perfect  equanimity, 


A  MELODRAMATIC  INCIDENT     215 

and  plunged  into  his  new  plans  with  the  same  con 
centration  that  had  marked  his  previous  undertak 
ings.  In  the  meantime,  Henry  Breed,  watched  sav 
agely  by  Zelphan,  spent  his  half -hour  daily  in  his 
huge  money-vault,  and  day  by  day  spent  more  and 
more  furtive  time  upon  his  Bible,  while  Blagg,  at 
dead  of  night  in  the  privacy  of  his  own  bedroom, 
practised  incessantly,  with  long,  sensitive  fingers, 
upon  his  sample  combination  lock.  He  could  open 
it  now,  set  upon  any  combination,  by  the  mere  feel 
of  the  drop  of  the  tumblers. 

Kelvin's  new  task  was  an  agreeable  one.  He  took 
up  pleasant  quarters  in  Washington  and  began  to 
entertain  the  list  of  senators  whom  Breed  counted 
as  among  his  assets,  and  gradually  his  circle  of 
acquaintances  grew.  He  was  gone  about  three 
months,  and  when  he  returned  he  sent  for  Rollins. 

"  Have  you  sent  Hepperdon  and  Raymer  and  the 
others  their  rebates?"  he  asked. 

"  Yesterday,  up  to  the  first  of  the  month,"  replied 
Rollins.  "Why?" 

"  Because  there  are  to  be  no  more.  Collect  your 
flat  rate  and  keep  it,  without  a  single  exception. 
We've  won." 

"  Rebate  to  the  United  Food  Company,  as  usual, 
Rollins,"  interrupted  Breed  with  a  chuckle.  "  That's 
my  only  profit  on  bread  now,  you  know,  since  Kel- 


216  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

vin  reduced  it  to  cost.  And  rebate  in  cash,  Rollins, 
always  in  cash !  "  and  he  rubbed  his  thin  old  hands 
together  in  tense  enjoyment. 

"  But  I  don't  quite  understand,"  protested  Rollins. 
"  Can't  they  legislate  against  us  effectively  now  ?  " 

"  Scarcely,"  returned  Kelvin  with  a  smile,  "  since 
we  ourselves  are  the  law-making  body,  so  long  as  we 
keep  the  public  from  clamoring  too  much  to  their 
servants  in  Washington.  I've  just  purchased 
stock  in  the  government  —  former  assets  of  Hepper- 
don  and  Raymer  and  their  fellow  bandits  —  to  give 
us  control." 

Rollins  looked  troubled.  "I  don't  like  it,"  he 
said. 

"  Nonsense !  "  declared  Kelvin.  "  We're  using  it 
to  a  good  end.  You  can  establish  your  flat  rate  now 
as  you  planned  in  the  first  place.  Surely  that  is  a 
bit  of  justice  you  could  not  have  had  otherwise. 
Moreover,  we're  going  to  begin  the  battle  of  the 
trusts  in  earnest." 

"  The  battle  of  the  trusts,"  repeated  Rollins  mus 
ingly.  "  It  sounds  interesting,  at  least." 

"  It  won't  be,  though,"  replied  Kelvin  with  con 
tempt.  "  There  will  be  no  battle  whatever.  I'm 
merely  going  to  chloroform  them,  on  the  eve  of  the 
presidential  nomination.  About  the  most  popular 
idea  that  was  ever  put  before  the  vast,  unsuccessful 
majority  of  the  voting  public  is  the  graded  property 


A  MELODRAMATIC  INCIDENT       217 

tax.  Well,  I'm  going  to  flame  into  print  with  the 
suggestion  for  a  graded  corporation  tax,  and  then 
have  Mr.  Breed's  carefully  tamed  legislators  frame 
that  suggestion  into  a  bill  and  pass  it  into  a  law. 
The  wealthier  the  corporation  the  more  it  will  be 
taxed  pro  rata,  until,  toward  the  top,  the  tax  will 
become  prohibitive.  I  look  forward  to  seeing  a  fine, 
healthy  new  crop  of  corporations,  all  rather  small. 
The  law  is  already  as  good  as  passed,  and  I  imagine 
that  it  will  be  quite  a  shock  to  your  old  friends 
Hepperdon  and  Valentine  and  Raymer,  Speed,  Mel 
ton  Sears  and  Company,  and  a  few  others.  Eh, 
Mr.  Breed?" 

But  Henry  Breed  did  not  hear  Phillip.  He  had 
just  taken  from  the  drawer  of  his  desk  a  handful 
of  photographs,  a  piece  of  red  wax  crayon,  a  ham 
mer  and  some  tacks  and  was  starting  for  the  rear 
study.  As  he  passed,  Phillip  caught  a  glimpse  of 
the  top  photograph.  It  was  a  portrait  of  Hepper 
don. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

KELVIN  AND  A  STRANGER  INSPECT  SOME  WORTHLESS 
LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE 


A 


CHEAPLY  dressed  fellow,  a  big  man  with 
a  thick  neck  and  broad  shoulders  and  arms 
that  hung  crooked  at  the  elbows,  alighted 
at  a  little  wilderness  station  on  the  Long  Island 
Railroad,  behind  Kelvin  and  Sam.  A  farmer-like 
native,  in  a  rattling  old  surrey  drawn  by  a  bony 
horse,  was  waiting  at  the  station,  and,  disregard 
ing  the  big  fellow,  who  looked  like  a  workman  out 
of  a  job,  approached  the  more  prosperous  appear 
ing  Phillip. 

"You  Mr.  Kelvin?"  he  demanded. 

"  The  same,"  replied  Kelvin.  "  This  is  Mr. 
Purser,  I  believe  ?  " 

"  I  reckon  so,"  admitted  the  other.  "  Old  Hay 
seed  Purser.  Most  people,  when  they  come  out  to 
see  me,  are  surprised  to  find  such  an  old  farmer  in 
the  real-estate  business,  but  I  take  oath  I've  sold 
more  Long  Island  property  than  all  these  plug-hat 
schemers  five  times  over." 

Kelvin,  with  a  smile,  had  already  clambered  into 
218 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE      219 

the  front  seat  of  the  dilapidated  surrey,  marveling 
at  the  old  cushions  from  which  the  dusty  horsehair 
protruded  on  all  sides.  Mr.  Purser,  who  was 
dressed  in  rusty  and  dusty  and  wrinkled  clothing 
from  peaked  cap  to  plow-shoes,  but  whose  rusty  and 
dusty  and  wrinkled  old  countenance  contained  a  pair 
of  very  bright  and  shrewd  blue  eyes,  paused  in  the 
operation  of  unhitching  the  weather-beaten  steed, 
and  fixed  upon  Kelvin  a  contemplative  gaze. 

"  You  don't  want  to  see  that  scrub-oak  land  we 
wrote  each  other  about,"  he  suddenly  advised  with 
engaging  bluntness.  "  You're  no  cheap-lot  boomer. 
You're  lookin'  for  a  summer  home.  Better  let  me 
sell  you  a  nice  piece  of  shore  property.  I  got  a 
fourteen-acre  place  with  eight  hundred  foot  of  fine 
gravel  beach  where  you  can  drive  right  down  into 
the  bay.  Ten  thousand  dollars  \vill  — " 

"  No,"  objected  Kelvin,  still  smiling.  "  I'll  look 
at  the  scrub-oak  property,  I  think." 

At  this  moment  the  big,  workman-looking  fellow 
stepped  up  to  Mr.  Purser.  "  Could  you  tell  me 
where  I'd  find  a  few  acres  of  cheap  ground  fit  for 
market-gardening?"  he  asked. 

"  There  ain't  any  such  property  left  on  Long 
Island,"  declared  Mr.  Purser  emphatically.  "  The 
land  between  this  railroad  and  the  water  ain't  cheap, 
and  the  land  back  o'  that  you  couldn't  grow  any 
thing  on.  It  is  all  sand-dunes.  Don't  grow  nothin* 


220  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

but  scrub-oak  and  scrub-pine."  He  was  frowning 
as  he  spoke.  He  had  already  determined  that  the 
big  man  could  not,  in  any  event,  be  a  profitable 
customer. 

"  I'll  look  at  what  you  have,  anyhow,"  replied 
the  other. 

"  All  right,"  said  Mr.  Purser  reluctantly.  "  Just 
crawl  in  the  buggy  there.  I  reckon  you  might  as 
well  go  along  if  Mr.  Kelvin  ain't  got  any  serious 
objections." 

"  None  whatever,"  said  Phillip,  glancing  at  the 
stranger  casually,  and  without  any  more  words  the 
latter  took  his  place  in  the  back  seat  of  the  surrey, 
beside  the  negro. 

Mr.  Purser  got  in  by  the  side  of  Kelvin,  took  the 
reins,  and  shook  his  raveled  old  whip  in  its  socket; 
whereat  the  bony  horse  moved  off  at  a  gait  which, 
aside  from  stopping  and  starting,  was  absolutely 
unalterable. 

They  drove  straight  away  from  the  tiny  station, 
and,  turning  from  the  highway  by  and  by,  struck 
off  into  a  scarcely  defined  road  through  the  wilder 
ness  of  stunted  oaks  and  pines,  a  road  that  could 
not  possibly  have  been  traversed  by  an  automobile 
or  followed  without  a  guide,  as  Kelvin  had  been 
warned  by  Mr.  Purser  before  he  came  down. 
Within  ten  minutes'  ride  from  the  beautifully 
wooded  and  turfed  bay- front  acreage,  they  were  as 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE     221 

good  as  lost  in  a  scene  so  forsaken  that  it  did  not 
seem  possible  that  busy  Broadway  could  be  so  near. 

"  Well,  here  you  see  it,"  said  Mr.  Purser  depre- 
catingly.  "  I  might  drive  you  for  hours,  and  it's 
all  just  like  this." 

"  What  is  it  worth  ?  "  asked  Kelvin. 

"  I  reckon  I  could  turn  over  a  thousand  acres  of 
it  runnin'  around  forty  and  fifty  dollars  an  acre." 

"  A  thousand  acres,"  mused  Kelvin.  "  Is  there 
much  more  available  land  as  cheap  as  this  on  the 
island  ?  "  asked  Kelvin. 

"More!"  gasped  Mr.  Purser.  "You  don't 
reckon  you'd  want  more,  do  you?  " 

"  I  haven't  said  so,"  replied  Kelvin,  smiling;  "  but 
is  there?" 

"  Any  quantity  of  it,"  declared  the  other  man. 
"  Long  Island's  about  as  funny  a  place  as  there  is 
on  earth,  I  judge.  It's  two  hundred  and  ten  miles 
long,  and  it's  ten  miles  across  in  the  narrowest  place. 
There  ain't  much  of  it  worth  shucks  after  a  half 
mile  away  from  the  shore.  The  edge  of  the  island's 
worth  about  a  thousand  dollars  an  acre,  and  the  in- 
side's  worth  about  nothin'.  Pretty  nigh  three- 
fourths  of  it's  just  plumb  wilderness  like  this." 

Phillip  clambered  out  of  the  surrey  with  an  in 
stinctive  desire  to  get  his  feet  upon  the  ground. 
With  his  cane  he  poked  into  the  soil.  It  was  of 
loosely  packed  sand  with  but  a  slight  alluvial  ad- 


222  .THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

mixture,  dotted  with  vegetation  so  scant  that  there 
was  scarcely  enough  green  to  relieve  its  dreary  gray- 
ness.  He  walked  up  a  little  knoll  and  calculatingly 
surveyed  the  prospect  in  every  direction.  Deliber 
ate  planning  was  in  his  eyes,  as  Purser  could  see. 
Again  he  dug  his  stick  into  the  loose  ground,  mak 
ing  a  hole  of  considerable  depth,  and  from  this  hole 
he  took  a  handful  of  the  soil  and  wrapped  it  up  in 
a  handkerchief,  much  to  Mr.  Purser's  surprise. 
That  shrewd  old  real-estate  dealer  turned  around 
to  exchange  glances  of  amused  wonder  with  the 
big  man,  who  had  sat  silent  in  the  back  seat  dur 
ing  the  entire  ride ;  but  the  latter  did  not  notice  him. 
He  was  watching  every  movement  of  Kelvin's  with 
concentrated  alertness.  Mr.  Purser's  eyes  narrowed 
as  he  studied  the  man. 

"  Do  you  see  anything  out  this  way  you'd  want?  " 
asked  Purser. 

His  question  was  unheard,  the  man  was  so  ab 
sorbed  in  watching  Kelvin.  Then,  for  the  first 
time,  Mr.  Purser  noticed  the  huge  negro.  His 
upper  lip  was  curled  back  in  a  snarl,  showing  his 
broad,  yellow  teeth  and  his  blood-red  gums;  the 
sinister  scar  upon  his  cheek  had  turned  livid;  his 
eyes  were  blazing;  his  great,  muscular  hands  were 
twitching,  and  he  was  watching  the  stranger  as  a 
crouching  tiger  might  gaze  upon  its  unconscious 
prey. 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE       223 

"  Gosh !  "  exclaimed  Mr.  Purser  involuntarily, 
and  then  hastily ;  "  I  say,  stranger,  do  you  see  any 
thing  out  thia  way  you  want?" 

"  Oh !  "  said  the  man  with  a  start.  "  No,  I  don't 
think  this  land  would  suit  me." 

"  I  reckoned  it  wouldn't,"  said  Mr.  Purser  dryly. 

Kelvin  came  walking  slowly  back,  turning  again 
to  take  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  ground. 

"Well,  what  do  you  think  of  it?"  asked  Mr. 
Purser  as  he  came  up. 

"  I'm  not  prepared  to  state  just  now,"  replied 
Kelvin  with  a  glance  at  the  stranger. 

"  We'll  go  back  to  my  office  and  talk  it  over. 
I'll  show  you  a  plat  of  the  grounds  hereabouts," 
said  Purser. 

His  office  proved  to  be  the  front  room  of  his 
little  frame  residence  just  outside  of  Safe  Haven, 
the  desolate  station  at  which  Kelvin  had  alighted, 
and  they  left  the  negro  and  the  stranger,  rather  to 
the  latter  gentleman's  reluctance,  in  the  surrey  while 
they  went  inside. 

"Who  is  that  fellow?  "  asked  Kelvin  as  soon  as 
they  were  in  the  room. 

"  Don't  know.  I  never  seen  him  before,"  re 
turned  Purser.  "  But  suffering  snakes !  I  get  all 
kinds  out  here.  Now,  I'll  show  you  them  plats. 
Here's  the  piece  of  ground  you  was  just  lookin'  at. 
There's  two  hundred  acres  in  that  patch,  an'  I  can 


224  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

get  it  for  you  for  forty  dollars  an  acre,  like  I  told 
you." 

"  That  includes  your  commission,  of  course,"  said 
Kelvin  thoughtfully.  "  I  don't  know  what  your 
commissions  are,  Mr.  Purser,  but  I  am  satisfied  that 
they  are  none  too  small  from  my  standpoint  and 
none  too  great  from  yours.  If  I  had  figured  on 
buying  no  more  than  this  two  hundred  acres  I'd  say 
I'd  take  this  lot  at  your  price.  How  much  money, 
on  the  average,  do  you  make  a  year?  " 

Mr.  Purser  scratched  his  head.  "  That's  pretty 
nigh  a  personal  question,  ain't  it?  "  he  asked  with  a 
dry  smile. 

"  It's  a  business  question,"  returned  Kelvin.  "  I 
want  to  buy  all  of  this  sort  of  land  you  can  secure 
within  eighty-five  miles  of  Broadway.  I  don't  want 
to  pay  excessive  commissions,  and  especially  I  do 
not  want  to  pay  whatever  fancy  prices  the  owners 
may  set  upon  it.  I'd  like  to  hire  you,  for  one  year, 
to  represent  me  exclusively  in  this  matter.  How 
much  do  you  want  ?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  Purser,  slowly  calculating, 
"  last  year  I  made  nigh  on  to  four  thousand  dol 
lars  in  commissions." 

"  Very  good,"  said  Kelvin.  "  I'll  give  you  five 
thousand  for  this  year,  beginning  now.  Do  you 
suppose  you  can  save  me  the  amount  of  your 
salary?" 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE     225 

"  I  reckon  I  could,"  Mr.  Purser  assured  him, 
succumbing  to  the  temptation  to  brag  upon  himself 
a  trifle.  "  I  reckon  there  ain't  anybody  on  this 
island  can  dicker  for  property  as  good  as  I  can. 
The  point  is  they  can't  fool  this  old  hayseed.  I 
know  land  when  I  see  it,  and  I  know  a  man  when 
I  see  him,  and  when  he  says  '  I'll  take  so  much,'  I 
know  exactly  how  much  less  he'll  take.  I'm  a 
pretty  good  man  to  bargain;  but  say,"  and  shrewd 
lines  came  around  the  very  keen  eyes,  "  if  I  should 
happen,  while  I  was  workin'  for  you,  to  pick  up  a 
little  deal  for  shore  property,  I  reckon  you  wouldn't 
object?" 

Kelvin  smiled.  "  I  don't  think  I  should,  so  long 
as  you  don't  neglect  my  business,"  he  said. 

"  I  ain't  one  of  the  neglectin'  kind,"  declared  Mr. 
Purser ;  "  and  I'm  much  obliged." 

"  It's  a  bargain  then,  is  it?  "  inquired  Kelvin. 

Mr.  Purser,  feeling  that  he  had  been  well  studied, 
studied  his  own  man  in  kind,  and  was  apparently 
satisfied.  "  Yes,  I  reckon  it  is.  Begins  right  now, 
don't  it?" 

"  Begins  right  now,"  assented  Kelvin. 

"  Well,  then,  this  two  hundred  acres  that  the  fel 
low  wants  forty  dollars  for  —  I  reckon  I  can  beat 
him  down  to  about  thirty-five,  actin'  as  your  agent." 

Again  Kelvin  smiled.  "  There's  a  thousand  of 
your  salary  saved  at  once,"  said  he.  "  Well,  go 


226  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

ahead,  Mr.  Purser,  do  the  very  best  you  can.  Make 
a  thorough  search  of  the  vacant  lands  on  the  island 
and  get  me  the  best  bargains  possible,  without  mak 
ing  any  noise  about  it.  Draw  on  me  at  any  time 
for  any  amount  of  money  you  want.  In  the  mean 
time  I  think  I  had  better  leave  a  deposit  with  you," 
and  producing  from  his  pocket  a  check-book  he 
wrote  to  the  order  of  Mr.  Purser,  whom  he  had 
thoroughly  investigated  before  coming  upon  this 
journey,  a  check  the  size  of  which  made  that  gentle 
man  gasp,  and  which  also  cleared  away  any  traces 
of  doubt  that  he  might  have  had. 

"  I  think  that  will  be  about  all  for  the  present," 
said  Kelvin,  and  rose  to  go. 

At  the  same  moment  the  stranger,  who  had  been 
sitting  upon  the  front  door-steps,  got  up  and  strolled 
off  a  little  distance,  where  he  was  most  earnestly 
inspecting  the  sky  and  the  distant  glimpse  of  the 
bay,  himself  under  the  equally  earnest  inspection  of 
the  negro,  Sam.  He  went  back  to  New  York  on 
the  same  train  with  Kelvin.  As  was  quite  natural, 
he  took  the  subway  where  Kelvin  did  and  followed 
into  the  same  car;  he  also  left  the  train  at  the  same 
up-town  station,  and  Kelvin  noticed  with  a  frown 
that  he  followed  up  the  street.  When  Kelvin  and 
Sam  turned  in  at  their  hotel,  however,  the  man 
passed  on,  and  Phillip  convinced  himself  that  the 
thing  had  been  merely  a  coincidence.  It  did  seem 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE     227 

to  him,  however,  as  he  thought  the  matter  over, 
that  wherever  he  went  recently  he  found  some 
poorly  dressed  stranger  with  him,  always  a  differ 
ent  man,  but  always  having  that  indefinable  air  of 
being  a  workman  out  of  a  job. 

That  night  the  stranger  in  an  obscure  lodging- 
house,  wrote  a  long  and  laboriously  scrawled  let 
ter,  which  he  afterward  translated  into  cipher,  to 
George  Blagg,  at  Forest  Lakes;  and  Kelvin,  in  his 
splendidly  furnished  apartments,  at  the  expensive 
Esplanade,  wrote  a  full  report  of  his  day's  doings 
to  Henry  Breed,  also  at  Forest  Lakes. 

Kelvin  seemed  to  be  going  in  rather  extensively 
for  real  estate,  for  the  morning  found  him  poring 
over  an  immense  hand-drawn  map  of  New  York 
City,  whereon  three  large  sections  were  blackly 
shaded.  While  he  was  copying  some  figures  from 
a  bulky  type-written  list,  referring  occasionally  to 
one  of  these  shaded  portions  of  the  map,  one  Patsy 
McCalken,  a  red-faced  man  with  a  mole  on  his  nose 
to  combat  his  aims  at  dignity,  was  announced.  To 
him  Kelvin  displayed  the  blot  over  which  he  had 
been  busy,  and  asked  pertinent  questions  about  it. 

"  It's  no  use,  Mr.  Kelvin,"  announced  Mr.  Mc 
Calken,  "  I  don't  know  who's  behind  you,  unless 
it's  old  Henry  Breed,  but  the  man  don't  live  that 
can  swing  them  precincts  away  from  the  Big  Chief 
—  and  you  say  there's  nawthin'  doin'  with  him." 


228  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  But  they're  your  precincts,"  objected  Kelvin. 
"  I  am  told  that  they  lie  in  the  hollow  of  your  hand; 
that  they  vote  as  you  tell  them  to  the  last  man; 
that  they'd  follow  you  into  the  river." 

Mr.  McCalken  swelled  with  visible  pride. 
"  Them's  the  finest  conducted  precincts  in  all  the 
city,"  he  justifiably  boasted.  "  Any  man  that  don't 
pay  attention  to  the  word  had  better  move,  and  that 
settles  it.  But  say, — "  and  curious  little  wrinkles 
rolled  up  on  both  sides  of  his  mole,  "  it  can  only  be 
handled  one  way,  now.  It  votes  the  same  ticket 
year  in  and  year  out,  and  if  I  was  to  try  to  switch 
it  —  well,  you  see  it's  all  a  part  of  the  organiza 
tion.  We  just  got  to  stick  together ;  see  ?  " 

"  I  see,"  said  Kelvin  with  a  smile.  "  In  other 
words,  you  all  know  entirely  too  much  about  each 
other." 

Mr.  McCalken  only  grinned.  "  Anyhow,  there's 
no  chance  on  earth,  no  matter  how  much  was  —  no 
matter  how  strong  the  arguments  that  might  be  held 
out." 

"  All  right,  then,"  concluded  Kelvin  briskly.  "  If 
you  can't  swing  that  district  to  my  principal  I'll 
have  to  take  it  away  from  you." 

Mr.  McCalken's  grin  became  a  guffaw.  "  When 
you  do  that,"  said  he,  taking  his  hat,  "  I'll  say  you're 
a  bigger  man  than  Dick  Croker  ever  was." 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE      229 

"  We  expect  to  make  Mr.  Croker  a  dim  and  faded 
memory  of  ineffectiveness,"  announced  Kelvin,  smil 
ing  and  looking  at  his  watch. 

His  next  caller  was  of  a  different  type,  a  big  man 
with  strong  nose  and  jaw,  a  good  brow  and  a  keen 
eye,  but  bearing  about  him,  in  some  indefinable 
sense,  the  marks  of  a  losing  fight. 

"  Hello,  Pellman,"  said  Phillip  heartily,  coming 
forward  to  shake  hands  with  him.  "  It's  as  good 
to  see  you  as  it  was  to  hear  your  voice  over  the 
'phone  the  other  day.  How  are  things  coming  with 
you?" 

"  Rotten,  thank  you,"  confessed  Pellman  with  a 
wry  smile. 

"  Haven't  succeeded  in  getting  a  good  start  yet, 
have  you  ?  "  Kelvin  bluntly  surmised. 

"What  are  you  trying  to  do?  Rub  it  in?  "  de 
manded  Pellman,  frowning. 

"  Certainly  not,"  responded  Kelvin  reproachfully. 
"  I'm  treating  the  whole  thing  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Breed  and  myself  broke  you  wide  open  when  we 
broke  the  Stock  Exchange,  and  I  want  to  know,  for 
business  reasons,  exactly  where  you  stand.  If  you 
are  on  your  feet  again,  why  I'm  glad  of  it.  We'll 
have  lunch  together,  and  I'll  beat  you  a  game  of 
billiards.  If  you're  not,  however,  I  am  able  to 
throw  a  big  chance  your  way." 


230  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  You  may  go  right  ahead  with  the  chance/'  de 
clared  Pellman  eagerly,  hitching  forward  his  chair. 
"  I  don't  mind  admitting  that  you  broke  me  so  com 
pletely  I  can't  start  anything  big  enough  to  inspire 
confidence." 

"  Would  it  inspire  any  confidence  if  you  were 
known  to  be  engineering  the  most  enormous  real- 
estate  deal  ever  consummated  in  New  York  ?  " 

Pellman's  eyes  began  to  brighten.  "  It  would 
have  to  be  a  big  one,"  he  warned. 

"  Would  you  call  it  a  big  one  to  buy  these  dis 
tricts  ?  "  and  Kelvin  indicated  the  three  shaded  spots 
on  his  map. 

"  Buy  them ! "  gasped  Pellman.  He  barely 
glanced  at  the  map  and  then  surveyed  Kelvin  in  as 
tonishment.  "  Why,  man  — "  He  paused ;  words 
were  lame  things. 

"Well,  I  want  them,"  declared  Kelvin.  "Of 
course,  when  you  get  through  they  will  represent  a 
pyramid  of  mortgages,  but  in  the  meantime  it  will 
take  a  lot  of  cash  backing,  which  I  have,  as  you 
probably  know."  They  both  smiled.  "  The  reason 
I  have  sent  for  you  is  that  I  must  not  appear  in 
this,  even  by  the  slightest  hint,  nor  must  Mr.  Breed. 
Do  you  care  to  undertake  the  deal  for  immediate 
manipulation?  " 

"Well,"  returned  Pellman  with  mock  hesitation, 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE     231 

"  I  don't  think  I  could  start  at  it  in  much  less  than 
thirty  minutes." 

In  less  than  an  hour  after  Pellman  had  gone, 
Senator  Sawyer  found  Kelvin  busy  over  another 
large  map,  this  time  of  the  United  States.  Here 
and  there  districts  were  lightly  shaded,  in  other 
places  they  were  cross-hatched,  in  others  left  in  pure 
white.  The  senator,  a  portly  gentleman  with  bushy 
white  eyebrows,  and  with  a  bland  purse-mouthness 
of  expression  suitable  to  passing  the  collection-plate 
of  a  pleasant  Sunday  morning,  was  gravely  glad 
to  see  his  dear  young  friend,  Mr.  Kelvin,  gravely 
anxious  about  his  physical  condition,  and  as  gravely 
solicitous  about  the  health  of  his  dear  old  friend, 
Mr.  Henry  Breed. 

"  As  for  myself,"  Kelvin  smilingly  informed  him, 
"I  shall  leave  you  to  judge;  as  for  Mr.  Breed,  he 
is  hearty  enough  to  desire  myself  and  Mr.  Rollins 
nominated  for  the  offices,  respectively,  of  president 
and  vice-president  of  the  United  States,  by  your 
party,  at  the  convention  this  coming  spring." 

Senator  Sawyer  sat  down  heavily,  and  placing  his 
hands  upon  the  arms  of  his  chair  with  his  shoulders 
hunched  and  his  elbows  akimbo,  regarded  Mr.  Kel 
vin  long  and  silently,  waiting  for  the  signal  to  break 
into  a  beaming  smile. 

"  I  have  been  very  busy  over  the  proposition," 


232  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Kelvin  went  on.  "  On  this  map  you  will  find,  left 
in  white,  the  portions  of  the  United  States  in  which 
Mr.  Breed's  personal  influence  and  forces  can  aid 
decisively  in  the  control  of  the  party  organization. 
These  portions  that  are  lightly  shaded  represent  dis 
tricts  and  states  in  which  missionary  work  is  now 
being  carried  on.  The  darkly  shaded  portions  are 
districts  with  which  .we  expect  to  have  the  most 
trouble." 

Senator  Sawyer  glanced,  unseeing,  at  the  map, 
and  then  resumed  his  staring  survey  of  Kelvin. 
"  Am  I  to  understand  that  you  are  in  earnest  about 
this?"  the  senator  painfully  inquired. 

"  Certainly,"  replied  Kelvin  calmly ;  "  as  earnest 
as  we  were  about  breaking  up  Mr.  Hepperdon's 
monopoly." 

Air.  Sawyer  winced.  He  had  once  been  Hepper 
don's  chief  senator;  he  had  attended  to  Mr.  Hepper 
don's  little  matters  of  legislation  for  a  great  many 
years,  and  had  only  recently,  upon  the  unfortunate 
dissolution  of  Mr.  Hepperdon's  combine,  associated 
himself  with  Mr.  Breed. 

"  We  have  every  prospect  of  success,"  Kelvin 
evenly  resumed.  "  In  the  first  place,  as  the  abso 
lute  proprietor  of  every  ounce  of  bread  and  cereal 
food  stuff  in  the  United  States,  Mr.  Breed  had  a 
great  many — friends  and  useful  advisers,  among 
the  various  legislative  bodies  of  the  country." 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE      233 

Senator  Sawyer  gravely  nodded  his  head.  "  In  the 
second  place,  after  he  had  secured  control  over  every 
mile  of  railroad  in  the  United  States,  Mr.  Breed 
became  possessed,  by  acquisition,  of  a  great  many 
other  friends  and  useful  advisers  theretofore  at 
tached  to  the  railroads."  Senator  Sawyer  squirmed 
slightly  in  his  chair.  "  In  the  third  place,  through 
his  control  of  the  railroads,  Mr.  Breed  took  a  no 
tion  to  do  a  little  trust-busting  which  proved  highly 
successful;  and  thereupon  he  became  possessed,  by 
reason  of  his  immense  anchorage  facilities  of  sev 
eral  other  suddenly  attached  friends  and  useful  ad 
visers.  Quite  a  little  army,  Senator." 

"  Y-e-s,"  slowly  admitted  Mr.  Sawyer  with  great 
mourn  fulness. 

The  senator  had  been  harboring  quite  other  plans 
than  those  proposed  by  Kelvin,  plans  in  which  he 
was  vitally  interested ;  and  the  whole  of  Kelvin's 
conversation  had  been  about  as  pleasant  as  an  hour 
in  a  dentist's  chair. 

"  You  will  find,  Senator,"  went  on  Kelvin,  "  that 
the  campaign  is  perfectly  mapped  out.  I  have  se 
cured  a  large  suite  on  the  floor  just  above  this  one 
for  your  headquarters.  You  will  readily  under 
stand  that  I  wish  to  remain,  as  does  Mr.  Rollins, 
an  ostensible  dark  horse,  up  to  the  very  hour  of 
the  nomination,  and  your  operations  will  need  to  be 
as  quietly  conducted  as  possible.  The  headquarters 


234  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

will  comprise  private  apartments  for  yourself  and 
such  others  as  you  care  to  have  with  you,  and  all 
living  expenses  will,  of  course,  go  in  with  the  other 
items  of  expenditure.  There  will,  naturally,  be  a 
generous  honorarium  attached.  I  shall  be  highly 
gratified  if  you  will  take  charge  of  the  bureau,  as 
will  Mr.  Breed  and  Mr.  Rollins." 

Mr.  Breed's  request,  coming  through  Kelvin,  was 
an  order.  Senator  Sawyer  rose  with  a  sigh,  but  he 
immediately  beamed  with  a  cheerful,  even  a  benevo 
lent,  smile. 

"  The  entire  matter  comes  as  a  surprise  to  me," 
said  he ;  "  but  as  a  very  pleasant  surprise.  I  can 
see  a  most  interesting  campaign  stretching  before 
us,  and  it  will  afford  me  keen  delight  if  I  can  in 
any  way  contribute  to  the  success  of  two  such  re 
markable  young  men  as  yourself  and  Mr.  Rollins." 

Herbert  Rensselaer  called,  the  picture  of  well- 
dressed  laziness  and  the  novelist's  ideal  of  a  healthy 
young  club-man  with  nothing  on  his  mind  but  his 
hair.  Kelvin,  who  had  not  smoked  that  day,  ac 
cepted  a  cigarette  gratefully,  lit  it,  leaned  back  in 
his  chair,  fixed  his  eyes  upon  Rensselaer,  and  rested. 

"  By  George,  I  don't  know  how  you  do  it,  Bert !  " 
he  declared.  "  In  the  old  cow-punching  days  you 
were  twice  as  active  as  myself;  but  now  —  well,  I'll 
bet  you  have  just  come  from  the  Volute  Club,  four 
blocks  away,  in  a  taxi." 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE     235 

"  Tell  me  the  amount  of  the  stakes,  and  I'll  pay 
you,"  drawled  Herbert.  "  I'm  all  that  you  say  I 
am,  Phill,  but  it's  only  a  pose.  Beneath  my  cravat 
pants  a  bosom  that  is  seething  with  discontent. 
You  know  the  conditions  —  last  scion  of  the  historic 
old  Rensselaers  and  all  that  rot;  poor  as  a  church 
mouse;  my  revered  aunt  cheerfully  sacrificing  the 
absurdly  large  salary  which  she  denies  that  she  re 
ceives,  to  make  a  dwaddler  out  of  me,  because  a 
Rensselaer  must  not  work.  I  am  supposed  to  repay 
her  by  marrying  the  aforesaid  Lillian,  who  doesn't 
know  it  yet.  Would  working  be  any  more  sordid 
than  that?  Would  anything  be  more  sordid  than 
my  sitting  here  talking  about  it  all  ?  Honestly,  Kel 
vin,  if  something  doesn't  turn  up  upon  which  I  may 
expend  a  little  man-power  energy  I'll  explode  by 
and  by." 

"  Just  possess  your  soul  in  patience,"  advised  Kel 
vin,  smiling.  "  Wait  until  I  am  elected  president, 
and  I'll  make  a  cabinet  officer  of  you." 

"  'Tis  the  way  of  the  world,"  sighed  Rensselaer. 
"  I  come  to  my  friend  to  make  my  whine  and  be 
soothed  with  sympathy,  and  I  meet  with  cold,  un 
feeling  jests." 

"  No,  honor  bright,  I  mean  it,"  declared  Kelvin, 
blowing  a  thin  line  of  blue  smoke  at  the  ceiling. 

"  Nonsense,"  protested  Herbert.  "  I  have  no 
qualifications,  old  chap." 


236  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Yes,  but  you  have,"  insisted  Kelvin,  speaking 
quite  seriously.  "  You  possess  the  leading  qualifica 
tions.  I  know  you  of  old.  You  can  not  be  influ 
enced,  coerced,  or  bought." 

Young  Rensselaer  suddenly  straightened  up  in 
his  chair  with  his  hands  gripping  the  arms  of  it,  his 
whole  tense  figure  startlingly  unlike  the  listless  form 
that  had  at  first  lounged  there.  "  You  are  right," 
said  he  with  a  snap  of  his  jaws ;  "  and  you  may  bet 
your  last  penny  upon  it  that  I'll  carry  out  your 
orders  absolutely,  wherever  you  put  me,  whether 
in  the  cabinet  or  at  the  head  of  an  army." 

"  You  might  even  have  a  chance  at  that,"  re 
turned  Kelvin  dryly.  "  In  the  meantime,  since  I 
suppose  you  came  around  to  entice  me  to  idleness, 
how  shall  we  waste  some  time  ?  " 

"  Oh,  dinner  and  the  theater,  I  suppose,"  replied 
the  other,  relapsing  into  his  drawl  of  indifference. 

"  Very  well,"  assented  Kelvin ;  "  suppose  you  meet 
me  at  six  thirty.  I  still  have  Rollins  and  Baker  and 
a  couple  of  political  burglars  to  see  this  afternoon." 

His  "  political  burglars  "  came  first,  but  of  these 
he  made  short  shrift,  introducing  them,  as  he  did 
Baker,  who  was  at  the  head  of  Breed's  publicity  de 
partment  for  the  United  Food  Company  of  New 
Jersey,  to  Senator  Sawyer,  who  had  already  taken 
possession  of  the  magnificent  headquarters  in  the 
Esplanade  and  was  ordering  an  elaborate  luncheon. 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE      237 

Rollins  came  later,  trim  and  precise  and  as  fas 
tidiously  clean  as  ever,  and  feeling  athletic  to  his 
finger-tips. 

"  I  have  a  brilliant  solution  for  your  Long  Island 
transportation  problem,"  he  began  with  enthusiasm. 
"  I  can  deliver  commuter  trains  to  your  farthest 
point,  if  it  does  not  exceed  the  eighty-five-mile  run 
you  promised,  in  one  hour  from  the  bridge  subway 
station." 

"  You  don't  say,"  returned  Kelvin  in  surprise. 
"  I  was  going  to  tell  you  the  details  of  the  joke  on 
poor  Sawyer,  but  this  is  better.  How  do  you  do 
it?" 

"  Rather  neatly,  I  think,"  replied  Rollins.  "  The 
first  rush-hour  train,  equipped  with  heavy  motors, 
will  carry  eight  cars,  one  for  each  of  the  last  eight 
stops  on  the  line.  One  minute  later  a  train  will 
follow  hauling  a  car  for  each  of  the  next  last  eight 
stops.  The  next  will  go  an  even  shorter  distance, 
and  so  on.  None  of  these  rush-hour  express  trains 
will  stop.  At  its  own  station  the  car  for  that  place 
will  simply  cut  itself  off,  make  a  flying-switch,  and 
become  a  local  trolley  under  its  own  motor.  I  can 
maintain  an  eighty-five-mile-an-hour  speed  from  one 
end  of  the  line  to  the  other  in  that  way.  Local 
trains,  of  course,  will  run  at  the  usual  rate." 

Kelvin  nodded  in  satisfaction.  "  I  knew  you 
could  work  it  out,"  he  commented.  "  I'll  Have  the 


238  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

necessary  permits  in  two  weeks,  and  you  can  begin 
construction  at  once.  In  the  meantime,  let  me  show 
you  a  new  map,"  and  from  the  thick  pile  of  such 
diagrams  upon  his  desk  he  drew  one  showing  the 
entire  consolidated  railroad  system  of  the  United 
States.  "  Here  is  what  your  railroad  control  has 
done.  It  has  accomplished  the  political  dominion 
of  half  the  United  States.  Each  of  those  lines 
paralleled  in  red  has  conquered  its  kingdom.  I  shall 
not  rest  until  every  mile  of  it  has  done  its  duty. 
The  old  system  of  political  control  is  disintegrated, 
and  the  new  era  has  come  in.  Rollins,  in  your 
mastership  of  every  mile  of  railroad  in  the  United 
States,  you  have  the  most  powerful  political  engine 
ever  devised  by  man." 

"  I  don't  like  it  to  be  prostituted  to  this  use," 
protested  Rollins. 

"  The  same  old  cry,"  returned  Kelvin  with  a 
slightly  exasperated  laugh.  "  You  ought  to  be 
satisfied.  I  don't  know  how  many  millions  of  graft 
you  have  eliminated.  You've  equalized  freight- 
rates,  so  that  the  small  shipper  has  an  equal  chance 
with  the  big  one.  You've  been  able  to  break  up  a 
score  of  top-heavy  monopolies  and  trusts.  You've 
accomplished  at  least  half  your  designs." 

"  I  know,"  granted  Rollins ;  "  but,  even  so,  I  have 
been  compelled  for  political  reasons  to  give  rebates 
which  I  had  sworn  I  would  never  give.  I  have  been 


LONG  ISLAND  REAL  ESTATE     239 

compelled  for  political  purposes  to  make  concessions 
which  I  had  sworn  I  would  never  make.  I  have 
been  compelled  to  do  a  great  many  things  against 
my  conscience,  against  my  notions  of  public  policy, 
against  my  most  cherished  dreams." 

"  You're  the  most  persistent  chap,"  complained 
Kelvin.  "  When  we  have  a  Congress  and  a  Senate 
of  our  own  choice,  we  can  carry  out  all  the  Utopian 
plans  of  both  Breed  and  ourselves.  Just  now  it  is 
necessary  to  give  something  in  order  to  take  again. 
These  concessions  that  you  are  making  are  only  in 
vestments,  as  Breed  would  say." 

Rollins  looked  up  curiously.  "  I  don't  quite 
understand  Breed,"  said  he.  "  He  seems  at  times 
to  possess  all  his  old  shrewdness,  but  at  other  times 
to  be  involved  in  a  maze  of  mysticism." 

Kelvin  frowned.  "  He's  spending  too  much  time 
with  his  Bible,"  he  declared.  "  He's  intemperate 
with  it." 


CHAPTER  XX 

LILLIAN  PAYS  PHILLIP  AN  ENTIRELY 
UNCONVENTIONAL  VISIT 

KELVIN,  returning  shortly  after  midnight 
from  his  evening  with  Rensselaer,  went  di 
rectly  to  his  own  sleeping-apartment,  which 
was  at  the  extreme  end  of  his  suite.  Sam,  crouch 
ing  on  the  floor  in  the  corner  with  pillows  and 
cushions  at  his  back,  opened  his  coal-black  eyes  un- 
blinkingly,  passing  instantly  from  profound  sleep 
to  alert  wake  fulness,  and,  having  without  a  word 
gravely  inspected  his  master  for  a  few  moments, 
arose  to  his  huge  height,  turned  down  the  covers 
of  Phillip's  bed,  and  laid  out  sleeping-garments. 
Kelvin  having  by  this  time  sat  down,  Sam  removed 
his  master's  shoes  and  placed  comfortable  slippers 
on  his  feet.  While  he  was  at  work  he  looked  up 
with  a  sudden  shrill  chuckle  and  a  grin  so  wide  that 
it  broke  into  queer  curves  the  long,  straight  scar 
on  his  cheek. 

"  What  are  you  laughing  at,  Sam  ?  "  asked  Phil 
lip  with  the  smile  of  amusement  that  Sam's  hilarity 
always  brought  to  his  face. 

240 


AN  UNCONVENTIONAL  VISIT     241 

"  Oh,  jes'  nothin',"  declared  Sam,  and  chuckled 
still  more. 

"  I  bet  you  are  thinking  of  Lucy,"  charged 
Phillip. 

"  Ah  reckon  Ah  am,"  confessed  Sam  with  a  laugh 
that  ended  in  a  shrill  falsetto.  "  Lucy  an'  sumpin' 
else." 

"  Something  else,  eh?     What  is  it?  " 

"  Ah  ain'  done  s'pose  to  tell,"  giggled  Sam. 
"  Got  t'  have  a  secret  once  in  a  while,  boss." 

Sam  busied  himself  about  the  remaining  prepara 
tions  for  Kelvin's  retiring,  and  while  he  did  so 
gave  vent  to  occasional  chuckles  to  which,  however, 
Kelvin  paid  but  little  attention,  for  already  he  was 
immersed  in  that  half-hour  of  revel  in  the  vast, 
gilded  halls  of  the  future  which  was  his  one  habitual 
dissipation  before  retiring,  and  he  scarcely  realized 
when  Sam  had  departed  for  the  night,  so  occupied 
was  he  with  his  boundless  enterprises  and  ambitions. 
Olympus !  With  that  height  alone  would  he  be  con 
tent  —  and  he  had  no  bodily  or  spiritual,  mental  or 
moral  clog  to  weight  him  down.  In  that  he  ex 
ulted.  He  was  temperate  to  the  extreme;  he  had 
permitted  himself  no  vices,  large  or  small;  he  had. 
kept  himself  free  from  all  entanglements  with 
women;  had  even  denied  himself  that  greatest  of 
all  weaknesses  —  or  else  that  greatest  of  all 
strengths  —  love!  Stern,  inflexible,  merciless,  un- 


242  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

deviating,  there  was  no  flaw  whatever  in  his 
weapons  or  in  his  armor;  and  there  would  be  no 
stopping  him. 

In  his  exultation  he  rose  to  his  full  height,  obey 
ing  an  instinct  which  impelled  him  to  stand  that  he 
might  feel  the  superb  strength  of  his  body  and  of 
his  soul  and  of  his  will,  untrammeled  by  any  weak 
ening  support.  As  he  did  so  the  slight  and  cautious 
click  of  a  knob  and  the  slight,  careful  creak  of  a 
door  startled  him.  He  turned  hastily  in  the  direc 
tion  from  which  the  sounds  had  come.  The  end 
door  of  his  suite  was  the  customary  twin  affair  by 
which  hotel  apartments  are  separated.  On  taking 
these  apartments  he  had  tried  his  own  door  and 
found  it  locked;  but,  nevertheless,  it  was  this  door 
which  was  opening!  He  quickly  swung  his  hand 
back  to  his  hip  pocket  and  held  himself  poised  for 
whatever  might  occur.  A  touch  of  bright  color 
and  a  glittering  eye  were  visible  now  in  the  crack 
of  the  door,  and  then  it  swung  suddenly  wide,  and 
Kelvin's  hand  dropped  limply  to  his  side;  for  the 
apparition  which  confronted  him  proved  to  be 
Lillian  Breed,  slender  but  exquisitely  rounded  in  the 
silk  kimono  which  revealed  her  white  throat  and  her 
shapely  forearms,  warm  against  the  soft  crimson 
fabric.  Her  dainty  feet  were  incased  in  fur-edged 
slippers  of  red  felt.  Her  hair  and  her  eyes  seemed 
blacker  than  ever.  Her  face,  a  perfect  oval,  was 


AN  UNCONVENTIONAL  VISIT      243 

warmed  by  the  rich  color  of  abundant  blood.  Her 
pointed  chin  was  dimpled,  and  her  scarlet  lips  were 
curved  in  a  smile,  half  of  mischief  and  half  of 
delight. 

"  Lillian !  "  gasped  Kelvin. 

Her  eyes  sparkling,  she  put  her  fingers  upon  her 
lips  and  noiselessly  closed  her  own  door,  then 
Phillip's,  behind  her,  then  advanced  to  him  with  out 
stretched  hands.  He  took  them  in  his  own  as  a 
matter  of  course,  but  held  her  at  arm's  length. 

"What  are  you  doing  here?"  he  demanded. 
"  Have  you  gone  mad  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all,"  she  laughed  gaily.  "  I'm  quite  sane 
and  sensible,  thank  you.  It  was  lonesome  at  Forest 
Lakes,  so  I  brought  Mrs.  Rensselaer  up  to  chaperon 
me  for  a  week's  shopping,  and  just  now,  after  mak 
ing  sure  that  you  would  be  quite  alone  for  the  rest 
of  the  evening,  I  have  merely  dropped  in  to  have 
a  chat  with  my  old  friend." 

"Mrs.  Rensselaer?  Where  is  she?"  asked 
Phillip. 

"  Sound  asleep  and  snoring  in  her  own  apart 
ment,  which  is  on  the  other  side  of  mine,  with  the 
bath-room  between  and  my  door  locked.  I  attended 
to  that,  all  right,  you  may  be  sure.  You  don't 
seem  at  all  glad  to  see  me,  though,"  and  she  pouted 
with  much  coquetry,  though  her  shining  eyes,  up 
turned  to  him,  belied  the  pout. 


244  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  I'm  not,"  answered  Phillip,  pushing  her  away 
almost  roughly.  "  This  is  the  utmost  folly.  You 
must  return  to  your  own  room,  and  in  the  morning 
you  must  move  to  some  other  floor  or  I  shall.  No, 
you  must  go  to  some  other  hotel." 

She  only  laughed  at  him  and  put  her  hand  upon 
his  arm,  still  half  outstretched  as  if  to  hold  her 
away.  More  than  once  Phillip  had  rebuffed  her, 
but  now  she  knew  her  power.  It  wras  an  exquisitely 
tapered  hand  that  lay  upon  his  sleeve,  and  an  ab 
surdly  small  hand ;  but  he  suddenly  felt  its  quite  ap 
preciable  weight,  and  its  insidious  warmth. 

"  I  sha'n't  move  from  the  hotel,"  she  said,  look 
ing  up  into  his  eyes  and  laughing  as  she  shook  her 
head.  "  I  sha'n't  move  from  these  apartments.  I 
sha'n't  move  from  this  room,  even,  until  I  get  ready 
to  go.  Phillip,  I  have  been  ordered  around  like  a 
child  ever  since  I  can  remember.  I  have  had  to  sit 
in  a  corner  and  merely  watch  great  things  being 
done.  Born  with  all  the  nervous  energy  and  all  the 
vast  capabilities  that  made  my  grandfather  rise  from 
a  poor  boy  to  the  richest  man  in  the  world,  fate 
cursed  me  by  making  me  a  girl,  with  no  outlet  for  all 
the  burning  desires  that  seethe  within  me ;  and  now 
I'm  going  to  revolt.  I'm  going  to  have  the  things 
I  want,  right  or  wrong,  and  among  them  I'm  going 
to  have  you !  " 

"  Lillian !  "  he  gasped,  and  drew  back  from  her ; 


AN  UNCONVENTIONAL  VISIT     245 

and  yet  he  could  not  look  down  into  her  blazing 
eyes,  upon  her  flushed  cheeks,  upon  her  moist,  red 
lips,  upon  the  rounded  column  of  her  throat,  with 
revolt.  She  saw  the  widening  pupils  of  his  eyes, 
and  knew  that  this  Achilles,  like  him  of  old  and  like 
every  warrior  since,  was  vulnerable. 

A  soft-footed  hallman,  paying  special  attention 
to  those  apartments,  listened  with  all  his  ears.  He 
could  not  distinguish  words,  but  he  felt  quite  sure 
of  the  hum  of  voices. 

"  You  are  a  conqueror,"  Lillian  went  on,  draw 
ing  closer.  "  Your  hand  is  the  hand  of  might,  the 
hand  that  could  grasp  and  wield  with  relentless 
power  either  sword  or  scepter.  You  have  in  your 
face  the  sternness  and  the  force  of  the  old  vikings, 
and  would  be  as  ruthless.  You  do  not  know  how 
I,  too,  love  power  and  all  that  represents  power.  I 
love  it  so  much  that  I  could  worship  it  even  while 
it  crushed  and  destroyed  me.  The  very  strength  of 
these  arms  I  want  for  mine.  Do  you  remember  one 
night  when  we  were  walking  in  the  woods  at  Forest 
Lakes  ?  "  Her  hands  stole  up  to  his  shoulders.  "  I 
wrenched  my  ankle  and  you  caught  me  and,  for 
one  breathless  instant,  held  me ;  held  me  tightly  and 
strongly  to  you.  I  felt  your  heart  beat  against 
mine;  I  felt  your  breath  upon  my  cheeks;  I  felt 
your  strong  arms  around  me."  Her  bare  arm  had 
slipped  up  and  slid  around  his  neck,  and  suddenly 


246  ,THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

she  had  clasped  both  of  them  about  him  and  clung 
to  him.  For  a  moment  longer  he  resisted,  and  then, 
shaken  and  torn  by  the  fierce  storm  of  emotions 
that  raged  within  him,  and  swept  from  the  impreg 
nable  base  upon  which  he  had  pedestaled  himself, 
he  suddenly  crushed  her  to  him  and  rained  kisses 
upon  her  smooth  brow,  her  silken  eyelids,  her  burn 
ing  cheeks,  her  soft  lips;  and  these  last  clung  to  him, 
clung  while  the  mad  fever  that  had  suddenly  pos 
sessed  them  both  swept  them  in  great  waves  of 
flame. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

LILLIAN,  BRAZEN  IN  HER  TRIUMPH,  DEALS  MORTAL 
BLOWS  TO  ELSIE  AND  BLAGG 

KELVIN  met  Mrs.  Rensselaer  and  Lillian  at 
breakfast,  and  they  talked  of  the  opera  and 
gowns,  of  automobiles  and  an  international 
wedding.  After  breakfast  he  bought  the  political 
control  of  an  entire  state  with  the  litigative  clientage 
of  a  thousand  miles  of  railroad.  He  met  in  the  hall 
of  his  floor  Elsie  White,  and,  whatever  anguish  it 
gave  his  soul  to  meet  now  this  girl  who  had  loved 
him,  and  loved  him  yet,  in  all  purity  and  tenderness, 
he  talked  calmly  with  her,  chatting  pleasantly  about 
her  father's  garden  at  Forest  Lakes.  He  let  a  con 
tract  for  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  grading  and 
cement  sidewalks.  He  saw  Sam  and  Lucy  laugh 
ing  in  the  servants'  elevator,  understood  Sam's 
hilarity  of  the  night  before,  and  had  an  inkling  of 
how  his  door  had  come  to  be  unlocked.  He  went 
to  the  theater  at  night  with  Mrs.  Rensselaer  and 
Lillian,  and,  after  they  had  returned  and  Mrs. 
Rensselaer  had  retired,  the  soft-footed  hallman 
listened  again  to  the  low  voices  in  Phillip's  apart- 
247 


248  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

ments,  and  sent  his  second  cipher  message  to  George 
Blagg,  who,  by  this  time,  was  hollow-eyed  and  pale 
with  suffering  —  and  murderous ! 

On  the  following  day  Phillip,  alone  with  Sam  in 
the  wilderness  of  Long  Island,  was  shot  at. 
Scarcely  had  the  report  sounded  when  Sam,  crouch 
ing  low  to  the  ground  like  an  animal  and  running 
with  neck  and  head  and  gorilla-like  arms  out 
stretched,  plunged  into  the  woods.  He  was  gone 
fully  an  hour,  and  rejoined  Phillip  at  the  station. 
His  eyes  were  bloodshot  and  he  was  panting,  while 
his  lips  twitched  back  over  his  teeth  now  and  then; 
but  he  was  smiling!  Phillip,  studying  his  face 
curiously,  asked  him  no  questions,  and  Sam  volun 
teered  no  information. 

At  the  end  of  the  week,  Lillian,  with  her  cortege, 
went  back  to  lonely  Forest  Lakes.  Where  Kelvin 
and  Rollins  and  Herbert  Rensselaer  had  helped  to 
enliven  the  huge  empty  house  and  the  immense  acre 
age  —  it,  too,  empty  except  for  the  small  army  of 
gaunt  and  grim  and  grizzled  woodsmen,  who,  with 
guns  slung  comfortably  in  their  arms,  kept  close 
sentry  —  now  there  remained  but  Henry  Breed  and 
George  Blagg  and  Doctor  Zelphan.  Zelphan  met 
her  first  as  she  came  up  on  the  porch,  peering  at 
her  through  his  thick  glasses  with  the  same  curious 
regard  that  he  always  bestowed  upon  her,  the  same 
that  he  would  have  given  to  a  strange  and  brilliantly 


LILLIAN  DEALS  MORTAL  BLOWS      249 

colored  insect.  Suddenly  his  eyes  lighted  as  they 
caught  her  glance.  For  an  instant  these  two  looked 
into  each  other's  souls,  and  Lillian  felt  her  cheeks 
burning;  but  in  an  instant  more  she  had  closed  those 
portals  of  her  inmost  consciousness  and  bestowed 
upon  him  a  stare  of  wilful  insolence,  whereat  Doc 
tor  Zelphan  turned  as  she  swept  through  the  open 
door,  and,  rubbing  his  fat  palms  softly  together, 
chuckled. 

Lillian  stopped  for  a  moment  in  the  dim  old 
library  where  Henry  Breed  sat  in  absorbed  con 
templation,  his  elbows  on  his  desk,  his  leathern 
cheeks  and  hollow  temples  supported  in  his  lean  old 
palms,  and  his  old,  well-thumbed  Bible  open  before 
him.  He  looked  up,  unseeing,  as  she  entered,  and 
placed  his  long  forefinger  upon  the  passage  he  had 
been  reading. 

"  '  Cast  abroad  the  rage  of  thy  wrath/  "  he  sol 
emnly  intoned,  " '  and  behold  every  one  that  is 
proud  and  abase  him.  Look  on  every  one  that 
is  proud  and  bring  him  low,  and  tread  down  the 
wicked  in  their  place.' ' 

As  he  finished,  a  look  of  intense  malignity  over 
spread  his  emaciated  features,  straightened  the  curve 
of  this  thin,  flexible  lips,  and  glowed  in  his  glitter 
ing  eye,  and  his  right  hand  slowly  reached  forward 
and  clutched  as  if  strangling  some  imaginary  foe. 
Lillian,  though  possessing  but  little  actual  affection 


250  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

for  her  grandfather,  had  still  a  strong  bond  of  sym 
pathy  with  him,  and  was  shocked  at  the  change 
that  had  taken  place  in  him  during  her  one  week  of 
absence. 

"  Grandfather,"  she  said,  sweeping  toward  him 
with  the  quick  decision  that  characterized  her,  "  you 
are  spending  too  much  time  in  this  stuffy  old  room, 
since  there  is  no  one  here  but  Zelphan.  It  is  per 
fectly  glorious  outdoors.  The  car  is  still  outside. 
I  want  you  to  come  and  ride  with  me.  I  want  to 
talk  with  you.  I  want  to  tell  you  a  lot  of  things 
about  my  trip." 

She  had  put  her  hand  upon  his  shoulder,  and  the 
touch  seemed  to  arouse  him  instantly.  He  reached 
up  and  took  her  hand  between  his  own  and  gazed 
at  her  with  a  slow  return  of  his  habitual  shrewd 
expression. 

"  You  are  looking  charming,"  he  commented. 
"  Your  trip  has  done  you  good.  I  never  saw  your 
eyes  so  bright  and  your  cheeks  so  red.  It  has  been 
very  lonesome  without  you.  Did  you  see  Kelvin  ?  " 
There  was  eagerness  in  the  question. 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  she  replied.  "  He's  accomplish 
ing  wonders." 

"  I  know,"  he  said,  and  glanced  at  a  pile  of  wire 
less  telegrams,  strung  upon  a  desk  hook  that  lay  at 
his  right  hand.  "  He's  a  marvelous  young  man, 
that.  He  is  the  instrument  of  Providence,  placed 


Elsie  turned  slowly,  a  flush  of  crimson  mounting  to  her  brow 


LILLIAN  DEALS  MORTAL  BLOWS      251 

in  my  hands  against  the  day  of  chastisement  and 
purification,  and  of  the  new  birth." 

"  I  don't  know  about  that,"  returned  Lillian  dryly. 
"  I  am  rather  inclined  to  think  that  you  are  the 
instrument  in  his  hand." 

"  The  tail  can  not  wag  the  dog,"  said  Breed,  smil 
ing.  "  The  things  Kelvin  aims  to  do  for  himself 
are  the  things  I  want  him  to  do  for  my  own  ends, 
and  if  he  ever  gets  too  big  for  me  I'll  break  him 
as  I  would  any  other  efficient  but  dangerous  tool. 
But  tell  me  about  him." 

"  That's  just  what  I  wanted  to  do,"  said  Lillian. 
"  Wait  until  I  run  up  and  get  into  something  more 
comfortable  than  these  traveling-clothes,  and  then 
I'll  go  out  and  drive  around  through  the  park  with 
you  and  talk.  I  want  to  see  the  place  again.  It 
seems  as  if  I  had  been  gone  a  year." 

Leaving  her  grandfather  to  muse  anew  over  the 
vault  beneath  his  feet,  where  reposed  the  silent 
weight  of  power  only  biding  its  time  to  reveal  its 
resistless  might,  Lillian  hurried  to  her  apartments, 
where  she  found  Elsie  White  standing  before  a 
photograph  of  Phillip.  Lillian  smiled  cruelly  as  she 
viewed  this  tableau,  and  stood  silent  until  Elsie, 
feeling  her  presence  in  the  room,  turned  slowly,  a 
flush  of  crimson  mounting  to  her  brow  as  she  met 
Lillian's  gaze. 

"  Get  out  my  gray  dress,  the  one  with  the  garnet 


252  ,THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

points,"  the  latter  ordered  crisply,  paying  no  ap 
parent  attention  to  Elsie's  momentary  confusion. 
"  I  have  only  time  to  wash  my  face  and  hands  and 
have  my  hair  done  over.  Have  my  bath  ready  in 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  after  I  leave  the  house." 

When  her  traveling-gown  had  been  exchanged  for 
a  fresh  one,  she  sat  before  the  dresser  upon  which 
Phillip's  photograph  was  standing.  "  He's  a  hand 
some  fellow,  isn't  he  ?  "  she  observed  carelessly  as 
Elsie  began  to  smooth  out  her  hair. 

"  Who?  "  asked  Elsie  quietly. 

Lillian  glanced  sardonically  at  Elsie  in  the  glass, 
but  the  girl  back  of  her  had  her  eyes  bent  steadily 
upon  her  work. 

"  Kelvin,"  answered  Lillian.  "  He's  built  like  an 
Adonis  and  muscled  like  a  young  Hercules;  but  the 
touch  of  his  hands,  strong  as  they  are,  is  like  vel 
vet."  She  was  keeping  her  cold  eyes  now  steadily 
fixed  upon  those  other  eyes  veiled  beneath  their 
downcast  lids,  and  that  cruel  smile  sat  fixedly  upon 
her  mouth.  "  His  eyes,"  she  went  on,  "  are  as  cold 
and  clear  as  the  winter  stars,  and  as  difficult  to 
warm,  but  when  at  last  they  blaze,  they  are  like 
unquenchable  coals.  His  lips  " —  she  lingered  over 
the  item  with  a  relish,  still  watching  that  pale  face 
— "  his  lips  are  cool  and  firm  " —  the  hands  busily 
engaged  with  her  black  tresses  trembled  slightly  — 
"  but  suddenly  they  are  like  fire.  I  think  I  shall 


LILLIAN  DEALS  MORTAL  BLOWS      253 

marry  him!  Elsie!  You  hurt  me  dreadfully  that 
time!  You  are  becoming  more  and  more  clumsy 
every  day.  I  am  afraid  that  I  shall  have  to  dis 
charge  you,"  and,  having  inflicted  all  the  pain  that 
she  could,  she  went  down  the  hall  singing  blithely. 
A  stranger,  hearing  her,  would  have  thought  that 
there  was  nothing  but  gentleness  and  guileless  joy 
in  her  heart. 

She  stopped  in  at  Blagg's  office.  He  had  heard 
her  coming.  He  was  receiving  a  message  at  the 
time,  and  the  light  of  the  tubes  gave  to  his  emaciated 
face  a  ghastly  wanness.  As  she  entered  he  only 
glanced  up  with  smoldering  hate.  Lillian  smiled 
back  in  all  her  witchery  at  that  black  look.  She 
knew  that  she  had  never  been  more  beautiful  than 
now.  She  knew  that  her  beauty  was  a  perpetual 
torment  to  this  man,  and  in  the  absence  of  more 
entertaining  prey  she  had  played  deliberately  upon 
the  love  she  had  found  in  him,  had  heightened  and 
tortured  it,  had  encouraged  and  then  repelled  it, 
had  toyed  with  him  as  a  cat  does  with  a  captured 
and  wing-broken  bird.  She  stood  still,  smiling  at 
him  until  he  had  finished. 

"  You  don't  seem  half  glad  to  see  me,  Mr.  Blagg," 
she  remonstrated. 

"  No !  "  he  answered  her,  and  his  voice  was  tense 
and  strained.  "  I  wish  you  had  never  come  back. 
I  wish  that  you  had  died !  " 


254  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Oh,  tut,  tut,"  she  said,  laughing,  though  a  glit 
ter  came  into  her  eyes.  She  was  forewarned. 
"  That  is  not  a  very  cheerful  reception.  It  seems  to 
me  that  you  are  becoming  old  and  peevish." 

"  I  am,"  he  asserted.     "  Lillian  — " 

"  Miss  Breed,  if  you  please,"  she  corrected  him. 

"  I'll  call  you  by  a  less  formal  name  than  that  if 
I  like,"  he  flared.  "  I  know  every  step  that  you 
took  while  you  were  away." 

"  Indeed  ?  "  she  said  pleasantly,  realizing  for  the 
first  time  that  there  was  some  basis  for  the  hints 
that  Blagg  had  often  given  her  of  a  powerful  or 
ganization  of  which  he  was  the  head. 

Her  calmness  angered  him.  "  Whatever  of  awe 
I  ever  had  for  you  is  gone,"  he  declared.  "  What 
ever  of  respect  I  ever  had  for  you  is  swept  away, 
Whatever  of  love  I  felt  is  dead." 

"  Then  we  may  be  at  peace  again,"  she  mocked 
him.  "  Your  awe  and  your  respect  and  your  love 
were  all  impertinences.  I  don't  know  why  I  didn't 
long  ago  have  you  discharged." 

"  I  know  why  you  didn't,"  he  replied  savagely. 
"  You  wanted  to  keep  me  here  to  practise  on,  and 
I  was  willing  enough,  God  knows.  But  now  that  I 
know  you  for  what  yon  are,  now  that  you  have 
made  yourself  common  — 

"  Be  careful !  "  she  warned  him.  "  It  is  not  safe 
to  talk  that  way  to  me." 


LILLIAN  DEALS  MORTAL  BLOWS     255 

"Safe  or  unsafe,"  he  cried,  "what  do  I  care? 
God!  I  have  died  a  thousand  deaths  in  the  past 
week,  and  I  can  not  be  further  harmed." 

"  Too  bad,"  she  murmured  in  mock  sympathy. 
"  Deaths  among  the  lower  orders  of  the  animal 
kingdom  seemed  quite  common  last  week.  They 
just  found  one  poor  fool  in  the  Long  Island  woods 
this  morning.  He  looked  like  a  workingman.  A 
revolver  was  by  his  side,  but  he  had  not  been 
shot.  He  had  been  strangled.  The  marks  of 
strong  fingers  that  must  have  been  enormous 
were  on  his  throat.  His  death  will  probably  al 
ways  remain  a  mystery.  That's  a  bad  place  down 
there.  Somebody  shot  at  Kelvin  there,  earlier 
in  the  week,  but  it  was  a  foolish  waste  of  ammuni 
tion.  Kelvin  bears  a  charmed  life."  She  was 
watching  Blagg's  face  narrowly,  and  for  every 
wince  that  he  gave  and  tried  to  conceal,  she  exulted. 
"  By  the  way,  you  have  not  yet  stated  what  has 
made  this  alleged  tremendous  change  in  you."  She 
looked  at  him  mockingly,  a  half  smile  upon  her  lips. 

"  Are  you  daring  me?  "  he  cried,  his  nervous  ten 
sion  increased  to  the  breaking-point  by  her  recital 
of  the  failure  of  his  plans,  the  first  news  he  had 
received  of  it. 

"  Tell  me,"  she  defied  him. 

"  Have  you  not  made  yourself  Kelvin's  mis 
tress?" 


256  ,THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

He  had  expected  to  overwhelm  her  with  this,  to 
meet  her  indignant  denial,  to  have  to  brave  her 
fury.  Instead,  she  let  her  half-veiled  eyes  rest 
cruelly  upon  him,  and,  looking  back  over  her  shoul 
der  at  him  with  that  mocking  smile  still  curling  her 
lips,  she  walked  toward  the  door. 

"  Yes,"  she  said. 

He  recoiled  as  though  she  had  struck  him  a  mor 
tal  blow.  He  sank  back  in  his  chair,  his  hands 
clenched  convulsively,  his  face  turned  ghastly  pale 
and  its  ghastliness  heightened  by  the  green  glow  of 
the  tube,  his  mouth  half  parted,  his  eyes  staring 
fixedly.  His  breath  and  even  the  beating  of  his 
heart  seemed  momentarily  to  have  stopped.  Rigid 
and  immovable  as  he  would  ever  be  in  death  he 
sat,  and  from  the  stairway  there  floated  up  to  his 
numbed  ears  a  gay  little  song  that  Lillian  lightly 
hummed  as  she  tripped  down  to  the  library. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

WHEREIN    KELVIN    EVICTS    ENOUGH    VOTERS    TO 
POPULATE  A  CITY  OF  HIS  OWN 

THE  nomination  of  Kelvin  and  Rollins  came 
as  an  astounding  surprise  to  the  public,  for 
their  names,  in  connection  with  the  presi 
dency,  had  been  carefully  suppressed  throughout, 
though  Senator  Sawyer's  publicity  bureau  had  kept 
the  papers  full  of  both  men,  in  other  ways.  They 
were  the  new  economic  conscience;  they  were  the 
new  commercial  philanthropy;  they  were  the  new 
justice;  they  were  the  new  foe  of  the  oppressor  and 
friend  of  the  poor.  It  was  retold  how  Kelvin, 
with  Breed's  money  back  of  him,  had  broken  up 
the  iniquitous  Stock  Exchange  and  had  reassembled 
it  upon  a  sane  basis;  how  he  had,  by  a  magnificent 
coup,  obtained  control  of  all  the  railroads  in  the 
United  States  and  placed  that  control  in  the  hands 
of  Rollins,  who  had  shattered  monopolies  right  and 
left  and  had  made  equitable  freight-rates  so  that 
the  poor  man  could  ship  as  cheaply  as  the  large 
corporations ;  but  above  all  it  was  retold,  with  many 
embellishments  and  illustrations,  how  Kelvin,  in- 
257 


258  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

dividually,  had  forced  Henry  Breed  to  reduce  the 
price  of  bread  permanently  from  five  to  four  cents 
a  loaf.  That  was  the  great  story  of  all;  that  was 
the  sympathetic  story,  the  heart-appeal  story,  the 
story  that  touched  every  man's  tearful  concern  for 
the  poor  man's  pocketbook ! 

A  dozen  favorite  sons  were  first  put  in  nomina 
tion  at  the  convention,  and  then,  in  a  neat  little 
speech  of  forty-five  minutes,  Senator  Killan,  re 
counting  the  story  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  Stock 
Exchange  and  of  the  capture  of  the  railroads,  the 
smashing  of  the  trusts,  and  the  reduction  of  the  price 
of  bread,  put  up  Kelvin's  name  for  consideration. 
Pandemonium  broke  loose  as  per  schedule,  one 
of  those  carefully  arranged  spontaneous  outbursts  so 
dear  to  American  politics,  and  on  its  crest  the  nom 
ination  of  Kelvin  as  candidate  for  the  high  office 
of  president  of  the  United  States,  the  youngest  man 
ever  to  achieve  that  honor,  became  but  a  mere  count 
ing  of  long-since-arranged- for  ballots;  after  which 
the  convention,  much  more  calmly  and  rationally, 
proceeded  to  nominate  Rollins. 

One-half  of  the  public  —  all  of  which  was  sur 
prised  at  first  —  received  those  two  names  with 
gasps  of  gratitude;  the  other  half  received  them  with 
snarls  of  scorn,  and  the  campaign  was  on.  Kelvin, 
refusing  to  make  a  mountebank  of  himself,  let  his 
managers  fight  it  out,  for  he  was  busy.  Out  upon 


KELVIN  EVICTS  VOTERS          259 

his  vast  stretches  of  Long  Island  waste,  spots 
hitherto  dreary  beyond  imagination,  through  the 
spring  and  the  long  summer  months  he  wrought  a 
vast  miracle ;  for  as  if  from  the  very  soil  there  now 
sprang  up  a  long  succession  of  residence  blocks,  each 
surrounded  with  its  cement  sidewalk,  each  contain 
ing  neat  little  cement  houses  molded  after  the  Edi 
son  idea,  and  each  house  set  in  a  generous  plot  of 
ground.  Water,  light,  sewerage,  parks,  schools,  all 
were  provided,  as  if  by  magic,  and  the  whole  was 
made  easily  accessible  by  the  new  and  wonderful 
transportation  system  that  Rollins  had  inaugurated 
at  the  same  time.  As  yet,  however,  except  for  the 
vast  army  of  men  employed  in  finishing  the  work, 
there  were  no  inhabitants,  and  the  peculiar  feature 
was  that  the  accidental  thousands  of  prospective 
purchasers  and  renters  of  homes  could  find  no  real- 
estate  office  in  all  the  interminable  miles  of  the 
attractive  new  chain  of  cities. 

As  soon  as  the  work  had  begun  to  assume  form  its 
magnitude  could  not  escape  the  newspapers.  Their 
first  two  questions  were :  "  What  is  this  ?  "  and 
"  Who  is  doing  it?  "  To  both  of  these  queries  Kel 
vin's  publicity  bureau  had  a  ready  answer:  light 
and  air  and  cleanliness  and  life  for  the  workingman, 
at  a  cheaper  price  than  he  paid  for  darkness  and 
poisoned  atmosphere  and  dirt  and  death.  It  was  a 
wonderful  story.  It  went  the  length  and  the 


26o  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

breadth  of  the  land,  and  it  lasted,  as  flaming  fea 
ture  material,  all  summer  and  fall.  Opposition  pa 
pers  called  it  politics,  but  they  could  not  call  it  cheap 
politics.  It  was  a  project  so  vast  that  the  very  con 
sideration  of  it  made  one  gasp.  Kelvin,  appealed 
to,  curtly  pointed  out  that  it  had  been  projected 
long  before  his  name  had  been  mentioned  for  the 
nomination,  and  that  it  was  merely  one  of  Henry 
Breed's  plans  for  the  use  of  his  enormous  wealth  in 
ameliorating  the  condition  of  mankind;  nor  did  he 
deny  that  the  undertaking  was  expected  to  pay  a 
legitimate  rate  of  interest  upon  the  outlay.  He  was 
entirely  practical,  he  stated,  and  the  inference  was 
that  he  would  make  an  entirely  practical  president; 
also  a  working  president,  for  he  was  busy  right  up 
to  the  time  of  election. 

As  if  arranged  by  Providence,  a  chance  to  display 
his  vigorous  practicality  came  just  a  few  days  be 
fore  election.  One  Pellman,  remembered  as  a  once 
forceful  man  on  Wall  Street,  then  as  a  "  has-been," 
had  suddenly  blossomed  into  the  lime-light  as  the 
real-estate  sensation  of  New  York.  Working 
quietly  he  had  secured  options  upon  tenement-house 
districts,  block  after  block  in  extent.  Purchasing 
for  cash,  he  mortgaged  and  purchased  again  and 
mortgaged  and  purchased  again,  until  he  had  com 
pleted  the  most  gigantic  series  of  deals  in  the  history 
of  the  city.  Now  he  announced  the  formation  of 


KELVIN  EVICTS  VOTERS         261 

a  monster  terminal  company  which  should  take  care 
of  all  the  freight  and  passenger  transportation 
entering  New  York,  and  the  erection  of  huge  struc 
tures  covering  blocks  in  extent.  Immediately  fol 
lowing  this,  notices  of  eviction  were  served  upon 
every  miserable  dweller  in  the  congested  tenement 
districts  that  he  had  purchased,  dispossess  warrants 
having  been  secured  in  various  squires'  courts  by 
wholesale  and  in  great  secrecy.  By  the  one  act 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  families  were  ren 
dered  homeless  and  every  newspaper  blazed  with  the 
wholesale  oppression. 

Who  then  came  to  the  rescue?  Why,  Kelvin! 
Kelvin,  the  disburser  of  Breed's  billions;  Kelvin, 
the  annihilator  of  the  Stock  Exchange;  Kelvin,  the 
breaker  of  trusts;  Kelvin,  the  reducer  of  the  price  of 
bread;  Kelvin,  the  poor  man's  friend;  Kelvin,  the 
candidate  for  president  of  the  United  States ! 

And  he  came  forward  with  a  project  truly  Kel- 
vinesque.  These  people  who  had  nowhere  to  go, 
he  would  take  care  of  every  one  of  them!  He 
would  furnish  them  free  transportation  for  them 
selves  and  their  goods  and  chattels.  He  would  at 
once  install  each  homeless  family  in  a  separate  little 
home  of  its  own,  free  of  moving  cost;  and  to  avoid 
any  suffering  that  might  be  attendant  upon  the  con 
fusion,  would  stock  each  house  with  a  week's  pro 
visions!  Would  a  summer  and  fall  of  campaign 


262  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

speeches  have  beaten  that?  Even  Pellman,  that 
wonderful  wizard  of  financeering,  admitted  that  it 
would  not.  Already,  for  the  cruel-hearted  Pellman, 
an  endless  army  of  bailiffs  had  begun  to  empty  tene 
ment-building  after  tenement-building,  dumping 
household  goods  ruthlessly  upon  the  walks;  and  in 
many  places,  particularly  in  narrow  thoroughfares 
seldom  used  for  heavy  traffic,  the  rubbish  was  piled 
clear  out  into  the  middle  of  the  street.  No  such 
appalling  evidence  of  the  might  of  wealth,  of  the 
power  of  the  rich  over  the  poor,  of  the  ruthless 
sacrifice  of  human  pawns,  had  ever  been  seen  in  the 
world.  Countless  thousands  of  dazed  and  helpless 
families,  thrust  suddenly  homeless  into  the  streets, 
attached  themselves,  in  pitiful  home-instinct,  each 
to  a  distressful  little  pile  of  battered  and  scratched 
and  splintered  and  ragged  goods,  and  merely  waited 
in  numbed  misery.  There  had  been  a  few  fights  at 
first,  a  few  blackened  eyes  and  bloody  noses  and 
broken  heads,  but  for  the  most  part  these  people, 
aggressive  enough  individually,  were  overwhelmed 
into  massed  numbness  by  the  very  magnitude  of  the 
cataclysm.  Where  wan,  thin-legged  children  had 
sat  on  steps  and  leaned  against  basement  railings 
and  cluttered  on  fire-escapes,  were  now  only  sight 
less  windows  and  littered  doorways,  while  the 
streets  they  mocked  were  such  a  chaos  of  human 
misery  as  scarce  Dore  could  have  conceived.  One 


KELVIN  EVICTS  VOTERS          263 

block  alone  of  this  would  have  been  enough  to  sicken 
the  soul  of  any  altruist,  but  when  this  block  was 
multiplied  by  hundreds,  such  an  aggregate  of  human 
woe  was  never  realized  short  of  a  Pompeiian  hor 
ror  or  an  Atlantian  tragedy.  Men  and  women  and 
children,  the  aged  and  the  lame  and  the  sick,  they 
were  like  dumb,  driven  cattle  under  the  awful 
power  of  this  devastation,  and  the  composite  sound 
of  all  their  voices  was  a  moan. 

This  tremendous  dislodgment  began  with  the 
early  dawn.  Nearing  noon,  down  the  first  of  these 
narrow,  misery-clogged  streets  there  came,  with 
military  precision,  a  strange  procession  of  moving- 
vans,  and,  arrived  at  the  first  breastworks  of  house 
hold  effects,  the  leader  of  that  procession  announced 
briefly,  to  those  nearest  him,  the  terms  of  Kelvin's 
offer. 

"Would  they  go?" 

A  cheer  answered  that  question,  a  cheer  of 
mighty  relief,  as  of  famished  men  in  sight  of  water, 
as  of  lost  souls  that  had  found  the  gates  of  para 
dise;  a  cheer  that  was  caught  up  around  unseen 
corners  and  on  far-off  streets,  that  traveled  like  a 
tidal  wave  and  redoubled  upon  itself  again  and 
again,  that  spread  in  running  circles  like  a  mighty 
splash  in  a  pond,  until  it  had  covered  all  that  broad 
area  of  desolation  and  turned  its  helpless  misery 
into  hysterical  rejoicing. 


264  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

There  had  been  no  great  rioting  in  the  eviction 
itself,  but  now  it  took  solid  cordons  of  police  to 
quell  the  rioting  of  eagerness  that  broke  forth,  the 
desire  that  could  not  wait.  Then  began  the  most 
amazing  hegira  in  the  history  of  civilization. 
Numbered  cards  were  provided  in  packs,  and  the 
same  number  was  tagged  upon  all  the  household 
goods  of  a  family  and  upon  all  its  members  and 
upon  the  van  which  hauled  it.  Out  into  the  new  ce 
ment  cities  they  were  carried,  into  fresh  air  and 
clean  surroundings  and  a  new  life,  away  from 
squalor  and  disease  and  degradation;  and,  though 
dazed  by  the  change,  they  were  different  people, 
and  better,  for  it.  So  Long  Island,  for  ages  useless, 
was  populated.  Through  the  day  and  the  night 
and  the  day  again  and  the  night,  for  more  than  two 
weeks,  this  tremendous  exodus  went  on,  and  an  in 
ternational  war,  the  assassination  of  a  king,  the  de 
struction,  by  flood  or  fire  or  earthquake  or  eruption, 
of  a  state,  would  have  had  to  give  way  in  news 
value  to  this  tremendous  occurrence.  Only  Patsy 
McCalken,  bereft  of  his  leadership  because  there 
was  no  one  to  lead,  put  his  stubby  finger  upon  the 
facts. 

"  He  said  he'd  take  it  away  from  me,  and  he  done 
it,  damn  him!"  exclaimed  Mr.  McCalken,  half  in 
dignantly  and  half  admiringly,  his  red  face  puffing 
redder,  and  curious  little  wrinkles  forming  upon 


KELVIN  EVICTS  VOTERS  265 

both  sides  of  the  mole  on  his  nose.  "  Them  three 
districts  would  V  beat  Kelvin  in  this  election,  and 
now  there  won't  be  enough  voters  left  in  the  whole 
abbatoir  to  wedge  a  come-on  in  a  vestibule.  An'  the 
whole  game's  a  frame-up.  Breed's  money's  back 
of  Kelvin,  and  it's  Breed's  money  that's  back  of 
Pellman;  and  Breed  gets  his  all  out  again  by  sellin' 
all  this  property  Pellman  bought  to  the  railroads. 
It  not  only  don't  cost  a  cent  to  make  all  this  election 
grandstand  play  from  here  to  'Frisco,  but  it  makes 
money!  Think  o'  that,  will  you!  If  Kelvin 
frames  up  this  deal  he's  a  bigger  man  than  Dick 
Croker ;  sure  he  is !  " 

Nobody,  however,  paid  any  attention  to  Patsy 
McCalken. 

Election  night  found  Henry  Breed,  as  eager  in 
his  interest  as  any  child  could  have  been,  in  New 
York  for  the  first  time  in  years ;  and  with  him  came 
Lillian,  Mrs.  Rensselaer,  Doctor  Zelphan,  and  the 
usual  servants.  Two  splendid  suites  on  Kelvin's 
floor  at  the  Esplanade  were  secured,  and  the  com 
mon  meeting-point  for  all  of  them  that  night  was  a 
magnificent  drawing-room  upon  the  corner  over 
looking  the  entrance  to  the  park,  and  also  over 
looking  a  moving-picture  bulletin  which  an  enter 
prising  newspaper  had  established  there.  Breed, 
apparently  made  young  again  by  his  excitement, 
and  dressed  with  unusual  care  at  the  dictation  of  his 


266  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

granddaughter,  surveyed  Kelvin  and  Rollins  in  turn 
with  paternal  delight;  but  he  studied  both  men 
shrewdly  and  ended  by  putting  his  hand  on  Kelvin's 
shoulder. 

"  My  boy,  you  are  made  of  the  right  stuff,"  he 
announced  in  his  shrill  voice.  "  Here's  the  man," 
and  he  turned  to  the  others,  "  fitted  to  sustain  a 
world's  crisis.  There  is  no  nervousness  here,  no 
energy  wasted  in  worry,  no  flinching,  face  straight 
ahead.  Fine  boy,  this  Kelvin." 

"  Throw  your  chest  out,  Phillip,"  drawled  Her 
bert  Rensselaer ;  "  a  connoisseur  in  fine  boys  is 
addressing  you." 

"  I  think  he's  about  right  myself,"  returned 
Phillip,  smiling,  until,  happening  to  glance  at  Rol 
lins,  he  found  his  co-candidate  regarding  him  with  a 
thoughtful  frown. 

There  had  come  some  slight  coolness  between  the 
two  men  during  the  closing  days  of  the  campaign, 
not  enough  to  amount  to  an  estrangement,  but 
enough  to  render  them  unusually  studious  of  each 
other.  They  had  never  been  thoroughly  en  rapport, 
and  now  there  came  a  sudden  set  to  Rollins'  shoul 
ders  and  a  squaring  of  his  jaw  and  a  narrowing 
of  his  eyes  that  boded  ill  for  the  harmony  of  their 
future  relations.  Kelvin  caught  the  look  and  its 
significance.  Could  it  be  possible,  he  wondered, 
that  Rollins  had  been  rendered  jealous  by  this 


KELVIN  EVICTS  VOTERS         267 

senile  praise  of  Breed's?  He  dismissed  that 
thought  as  absurd. 

"Really,"  put  in  Mrs.  Rensselaer,  "we  are  all 
intensely  interested,  and  even  absorbed,  in  your 
campaign,  Mr.  Kelvin.  We  think  it  has  been  very 
cleverly  conducted  indeed." 

Doctor  Zelphan,  sitting  quietly  over  in  the  corner 
of  the  big  drawing-room,  made  a  sound  suspiciously 
like  a  snort  of  hilarious  derision,  which  only  Lillian, 
with  an  amused  glance,  caught  and  interpreted. 

"  For  myself,  for  Mr.  Rollins,  and  also  for  Mr. 
Breed,  I  thank  you,"  said  Kelvin  to  Mrs.  Rens 
selaer,  who  he  knew  hated  him ;  "  but  we  all  have  to 
remember  that,  while  the  campaign  is  over,  our 
election  is  not  yet  assured,  by  any  means.  Mr. 
Rollins  and  Mr.  Breed  and  myself,  as  monopolists 
and  malefactors  and  capitalists  of  great  wealth  and  a 
few  other  reprehensible  things,  have  come  in  for 
some  hard  scorings  in  the  past  few  days,  and  just 
how  much  effect  that  is  going  to  have  on  the  atti 
tude  of  the  public  it  is  hard  to  tell." 

"  Huh !  It  isn't  worth  considering,"  said  Breed, 
snapping  his  lean,  long  fingers.  "  Elections  are 
not  won  on  public  sentiment  alone.  Politics  is  too 
thoroughly  organized  for  that.  Get  the  leaders 
who  own  the  little  leaders,  who,  in  turn,  own  the 
minor  workers,  clear  down  to  the  ward  thugs,  and 
you  have  the  country." 


268  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  I  can  not  agree  with  you,"  broke  in  Rollins  with 
an  amount  of  vigor  which  made  them  all  suddenly 
turn  to  him,  displaying  a  trifle  more  than  the  mere 
polite  and  courteous  interest  they  had  been  paying 
to  one  another.  "  In  ordinary  times,  where  noth 
ing  is  at  stake,  that  might  be  true,"  he  went  on, 
"  but  with  a  vital  issue  to  the  fore,  the  best  political 
machinery  in  the  world  must  go  to  pieces.  The 
man  who  disregards  the  tremendous,  resistless  force 
of  public  sentiment  reckons  without  the  mighty 
power  which  has  made  every  important  change 
upon  the  maps  since  history  began." 

"  Mercy !  "  cried  Lillian.  "  How  vitally  serious 
we  are  becoming !  I  should  think  it  would  be  great 
fun  to  change  the  maps  of  the  world,  but  in  the 
meantime  there  are  nearer  and  dearer  things  to  me ; 
as,  for  instance,  when  and  where  are  we  to  have 
dinner?  " 

"  Right  in  this  apartment,  I  think,  if  Mr.  Breed 
will  allow  it,"  said  Kelvin  with  a  laugh  as  he  pushed 
a  button.  "  At  least  I  ordered  it  to  be  served  here. 
Bulletins  will  be  coming  in  before  we  are  even 
seated,  and  while  the  early  ones  do  not  amount  to 
much,  I  am  sure  we  shall  all  be  interested  in  them. 
By  having  the  table  in  this  room  we  can  look  out  at 
the  big  bulletin  across  the  street,  and  no  formality 
is  to  prevent  any  of  us  from  rushing  out  upon  our 
balcony  to  watch  the  cheering  if  there  is  any  un- 


KELVIN  EVICTS  VOTERS          269 

usual  excitement.  In  the  meantime,  suppose  we 
scatter  and  make  ready  for  dinner  as  quickly  as  we 
can.  I  ordered  it  rather  early.  It  should  be  about 
ready  to  serve,  and  the  butler  would  probably  be 
glad  to  have  this  room." 

Breed  walked  out  into  the  hall  with  Kelvin.  "  I 
will  be  glad  when  the  night  is  over  so  I  can  go  back 
to  Forest  Lakes,"  he  confided  to  Phillip.  "  I  can 
not  get  out  of  my  mind  the  fact  of  all  that  money 
there  —  alone.  It  —  it  calls  to  me,  Phillip !  " 

"  Nonsense,"  replied  Kelvin,  glancing  at  him 
curiously.  His  conferences  with  Breed  during  the 
closing  months  of  the  campaign  had  been  very  few 
and  very  brief,  but,  even  so,  he  had  noticed  a 
strange  development  —  that  the  old  man  was  prone 
to  pass  from  normality  to  abnormality  and  back 
again  with  not  only  surprising  but  discomforting 
swiftness;  and  now  he  saw  in  the  old  man's  eyes 
the  dawning  of  that  erratic  expression  which  he  had 
come  to  dread,  largely  because  it  annoyed  him,  be 
cause  it  interfered  with  the  cool  planning  and  the 
ready  understanding  that  he  wished  from  this  man 
in  his  tremendous  schemes.  "  No  one  knows  about 
it,"  Kelvin  assured  him ;  "  and  an  army  could  not 
force  the  vaults." 

"  It  isn't  that,"  Breed  half  whispered.  "  It  —  it 
calls  to  me,  I  say.  I  hear  it,  in  tongues  of  silver 
and  of  gold  and  in  soft,  silken  rustlings,  when  I  try 


270  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

to  sleep  away  from  home.  As  for  safety,  it's  safe 
enough,  but  it  —  it  calls  me !  Not  for  protection, 
you  know,  but  for  company;  just  company.  Not 
that  it's  afraid.  It  knows  that  I  have  guarded  it 
well.  I  have  doubled  my  force  of  watchmen 
around  there,  did  you  know?  I  have  almost  a 
regiment;  ignorant  fellows  that  I  have  brought  up 
from  the  mountains,  men  who  know  nothing  but 
how  to  handle  a  gun.  I  have  a  solid  line  of  them  all 
around  the  house  and  all  around  the  walls  and  all 
around  the  drives,  with  instructions  to  shoot  the 
first  man  that  comes  near."  His  voice  sank  to  a 
whisper.  "  They  have  shot  two  in  the  past  month. 
They  dragged  them  away  and  buried  them  at 
night."  Kelvin  turned  to  Breed,  shocked  and  hor 
ror-stricken.  The  old  man's  eyes  were  blazing, 
and  his  hand,  as  he  laid  it  upon  Phillip's  arm,  was 
trembling,  not  with  fright  but  with  some  more  lust 
ful  passion.  "  Mine  is  the  appointed  hand,"  he 
went  on.  "  Mine  is  the  appointed  hand.  From  the 
just  wrath  of  the  Most  High  there  is  no  escape." 

"  No,  I  presume  not,"  admitted  Kelvin  with  calm 
ness  at  least  in  his  voice,  as  he  sought  quickly  for 
some  means  to  turn  the  channel  of  the  old  man's 
thought.  He  was  not  sure  whether  Breed's  guards 
had  actually  killed  two  trespassers,  but  at  this  junc 
ture  he  did  not  much  care,  the  shock  once  past.  In 
spite  of  his  outward  self-possession  he  was  at  a  high 


KELVIN  EVICTS  VOTERS          271 

tension  over  the  outcome  of  the  evening,  and  was 
impatient  to  be  by  himself  for  a  few  moments. 
"  There  is  not  so  much  to  guard  as  there  used  to 
be,"  he  suggested. 

The  instant  change  in  Breed's  countenance  as 
sured  Kelvin  that  he  had  struck  the  right  note. 

"  No,"  admitted  Breed,  shaking  his  head,  "  that's 
true."  He  seemed  quite  cast  down  about  it 
for  a  moment,  then  suddenly  he  chuckled  shrilly. 
"  But  we'll  get  it  all  back,  Phillip.  It's  only  an  in 
vestment,  and  when  you  become  president  and  we 
get  a  Senate  and  Congress  that  we  can  handle,  my 
vault  will  receive  every  cash  dollar  in  the  United 
States.  Then  we'll  see  what  we  shall  see,"  and  he 
bobbed  his  old  bald  head  like  a  toy  mandarin. 

"  We  shall  see  what  we  shall  see,"  repeated  Kel 
vin  enigmatically,  and  turned  abruptly  toward  his 
suite. 

Lillian  sweeping  down  the  hall  after  them,  called 
to  Phillip.  He  waited  at  his  door  for  her,  and 
Henry  Breed,  looking  at  them  fondly  for  a  moment, 
turned  back  into  his  own  reception-room. 

"  I've  a  crow  to  pick  with  you,"  declared  Lillian, 
drawing  up  closely  to  Phillip  and  putting  her  hand 
upon  his  forearm. 

"  And  what  is  it  ?  "  he  asked,  frowning  slightly 
and  making  no  attempt  to  conceal  it. 

"  Now  don't  be  cross,"  she  rallied  him  playfully. 


272  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  You  haven't  been  down  to  see  me  in  a  month,  and 
you  never  have  written  me  a  single  letter." 

"  I  never  put  myself  on  paper,"  returned  Phillip. 

"  You're  a  most  unsatisfactory  lover,"  she 
charged,  shrugging  her  shoulders. 

Blagg,  so  gaunt  and  emaciated  that  his  previous 
gauntness  and  emaciation  seemed,  by  contrasted 
recollection,  like  plumpness,  passed  them  with  a  look 
of  concentrated  fury;  his  eyes,  sunken  deep  in  their 
cavities,  looked  like  wells  of  blackness.  Lillian 
smiled  at  his  malevolence,  but  Kelvin  shook  his 
head. 

"  I  don't  like  that  fellow,"  he  observed.  "  He's 
a  dangerous  man  to  have  around.  He's  a  fool  and 
a  fanatic,  and  there  is  no  telling  where  and  when 
he  will  break  loose." 

"  I  don't  know,"  Lillian  mused.  "  I  believe  that 
all  you  say  about  him  is  true,  but  I  rather  like  to 
play  with  fire,  don't  you  ?  " 

"No,"  replied  Kelvin  shortly;  "not  unless  there 
is  a  definite  end  to  gain  by  doing  so." 

It  was  Mrs.  Rensselaer  who  rescued  Phillip. 
She  could  not  be  comfortable  if  Lillian  was  out  of 
her  sight  for  more  than  a  few  minutes,  especially 
when  Kelvin  was  in  the  neighborhood,  for  the 
project  to  have  her  nephew  marry  the  richest  girl 
in  the  world  never  passed  from  the  mind  of  that 
indefatigable  woman. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE   MISSING   DESK   DAGGER    REAPPEARS   IN    A   ROLE 
OF   LURID    MELODRAMA 

WHEN  the  company  sat  down  to  dinner, 
Kelvin  found  at  his  plate  the  early  bul 
letins  which  he  had  directed  to  be  left 
there.  They  were  returns  from  scattered  precincts 
and  meant  nothing  as  to  the  general  results, 
but  they  were  all  highly  favorable  to  the  elec 
tion  of  Kelvin  and  Rollins,  and  had  the  effect 
of  starting  the  dinner  with  much  lightness  of 
spirit.  So  it  was  with  the  bulletins  which  came  for 
the  next  hour  or  so.  Blagg  himself,  swathed  in 
impenetrable  gloom,  brought  them  from  the  adjoin 
ing  room,  into  which,  for  the  occasion,  private  wires 
had  been  run  for  him  and  an  assistant,  and  through 
all  that  long  and  apparently  interminable  succession 
of  favorable  despatches  —  during  which  Breed, 
more  fatigued  than  he  had  thought,  went  to  bed  — 
he  never  lifted  his  eyes  from  the  floor.  At  ten 
o'clock,  however,  unfavorable  bulletins  began  to 
come  in,  one  after  the  other,  and  Blagg,  for  the 
first  time,  began  to  raise  his  eyes  from  the  floor,  to 
square  back  his  shoulders,  to  tilt  his  pointed  chin. 

273 


274  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

They  were  like  drafts  of  strong  wine  to  him,  these 
messages,  and  as  their  importance  and  significance 
increased,  his  spirits  rose.  Senator  Sawyer,  wor 
ried  beyond  measure  by  the  unexpected  develop 
ment,  came  bustling  into  the  room. 

"  I  don't  understand  it,"  he  declared.  "  You've 
had  against  you  in  this  campaign  three  elements; 
first,  the  ordinary  opposing  politics;  second,  the 
corporations;  third,  class  hatred.  On  the  mere 
matter  of  partisan  politics  we  win  by  superior  or 
ganization.  Any  effect  the  corporations  may  have 
had  against  you  has  been  more  than  offset  by  the 
work  you've  done  against  them.  Class  hatred 
should  have  been  amply  overcome  by  the  fact  that 
you  have  arrayed  yourself  against  your  own  class, 
and  that  all  your  operations  have  been  in  favor  of 
the  masses.  There  is  something  else  behind  all  this. 
These  adverse  reports  are  from  large  cities  exclu 
sively,  and  from  two  parts,  congested  city  districts 
and  outlying  districts  given  over  to  extremely 
cheap  workingmen's  homes.  It  would  look  as  if 
the  labor  vote  had  suddenly  switched." 

Lillian,  watching  Blagg,  saw  his  face  light  with 
a  malignant  smile. 

"  I  can  not  understand  how  the  labor  vote  should 
have  been  estranged,"  commented  Kelvin  slowly; 
"  but,  after  all,  what  does  it  matter?  The  thing  in 
which  I  am  chiefly  interested  just  now  is  not  cause 


THE  MISSING  DESK  DAGGER      275 

but  result.  We  can  analyze  the  situation  after 
ward." 

Blagg,  still  smiling,  left  the  room,  returning  a 
moment  later  with  still  other  depressing  news.  It 
was  a  restless  hour  that  followed.  The  table  had 
been  cleared,  only  wine  and  cigars  and  cigarettes 
remaining,  and  Breed's  company  alternated  nerv 
ously  between  the  balcony  and  the  table,  sitting  out 
side  at  times  to  watch  the  big  illuminated  screer. 
across  the  street,  and  drifting  in  by  twos  and  threes 
to  resume  their  places  at  the  table,  to  talk  and  sip 
wine  and  receive  Blagg's  messages,  and  drift  again 
to  the  balcony.  The  most  of  them  were  inside 
when,  at  the  end  of  an  hour  of  almost  continued 
bad  news,  Blagg  brought  in  a  particularly  unfavor 
able  telegram,  one  purporting  to  come  from  the 
national  committee  and  conceding  the  possible 
defeat  of  Kelvin  by  a  narrow  margin. 

"  I'm  bound  to  confess  that  it  looks  bad,"  Kelvin 
was  forced  to  admit;  "but  I'm  like  you,  Senator; 
I  can't  understand  it.  I  don't  see  what  element 
could  have  worked  against  me." 

"  I  can  tell  you,"  suddenly  broke  in  the  voice  of 
Blagg,  a  voice  that  was  shrill  in  its  long-suppressed 
triumph.  "  I  did  it.  I  am  at  the  head  of  an  organ 
ization  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  men  each  one 
sworn  with  his  life  against  the  principles  you  rep 
resent.  I  sent  them  out  the  word  immediately  after 


276  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

your  nomination,  and  once  a  week  since,  to  vote 
against  you  and  to  work  against  you  tooth  and  nail, 
and  they  have  done  it.  You  owe  your  defeat  to 
me,"  and  he  beat  both  hands  upon  his  chest  in  his 
madness  of  exultation. 

Kelvin  eyed  him  coldly.  "  You  were  not  asked 
for  any  comments  or  explanations,  Mr.  Blagg,"  he 
observed.  "  For  the  remainder  of  the  evening  you 
will  kindly,  and  without  unnecessary  conversation, 
attend  to  the  duties  which  permit  you  to  enter  this 
room." 

Blagg  caught  his  breath  sharply  and  trembled. 
His  hands  clenched  convulsively,  but  suddenly  he 
wheeled  and  strode  from  the  room. 

"  The  man  is  telling  the  truth,"  said  Rollins. 
"  I've  heard  him  talk  of  this  organization  before, 
but  I  thought  it  only  the  boastings  of  his  kind.  I 
am  compelled  to  believe  now  that  his  organization 
actually  exists,  in  the  numbers  he  claims,  and  that 
it  is  effective." 

"  If  it  is,"  declared  Kelvin,  "  I  shall  make  it  my 
business  to  drag  that  organization  out  by  the 
roots !  " 

A  cheer,  the  first  hearty  one  in  a  half-hour,  at 
tracted  them  to  the  balcony.  The  bulletin  across 
the  street  was  displaying  a  highly  favorable  mes 
sage,  which  proved  to  be  the  turning  of  the  tide. 
Lillian  went  into  Blagg's  room  to  telephone  for 


THE  MISSING  DESK  DAGGER     277 

Elsie  White.  Blagg  was  in  a  chair  in  the  corner 
with  his  handkerchief  to  his  mouth,  and  there  were 
red  stains  upon  it.  He  rose  as  Lillian  entered. 

"  You  may  go  get  that  cigar,  now,"  he  said  to 
his  assistant,  who  was  at  the  key.  "  What  did  I  tell 
you  ?  "  he  demanded,  turning  to  Lillian  as  soon  as 
the  operator  had  gone.  "  Who  has  shown  the 
greater  power,  Kelvin  or  myself?  His  star  is  on 
the  wane  and  mine  in  the  ascendancy !  "  he  almost 
shrieked.  "  This  is  his  last  chance.  He  is  through, 
and  it  is  I  who  have  defeated  him.  It  is  only  the 
start  of  the  things  I  am  destined  to  do,  and  with 
your  help  I  can  conquer  worlds.  Lillian,  come  with 
me !  "  He  caught  her  by  the  shoulder,  and,  turning 
to  look  him  clearly  in  the  eyes,  she  suffered  his  hand 
to  remain  there.  "  You  know  where  there  is  a  bil 
lion  and  a  half  dollars  in  cash!  With  this  money  we 
can  overturn  the  entire  rotten  social  and  financial 
and  political  system  of  this  country,  and  sway  the 
mightiest  empire  in  the  world  to  our  will.  I've 
talked  of  this  phase  first,  because  you  have  not  let 
me  talk  of  love;  but  now  I  must  speak  of  it,  Lillian! 
I  am  dying  for  the  love  of  you !  You  have  nearly 
killed  me,  but,  God  help  me,  I'll  take  you  yet! 
Come ;  right  now  while  you  have  a  chance,  and  we'll 
go  to  Forest  Lakes  immediately  —  to-night !  I've  a 
thousand  men  where  I  can  mass  them  in  an  hour. 
Come !  Kelvin  will  cast  you  off  like  a  broken  toy." 


278  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Slowly,  holding  his  eyes  with  her  own,  Lillian's 
hand  crept  up  to  her  shoulder.  He  thought,  as  he 
saw  it  slipping  upward,  that  she  had  intended  to 
rest  her  palm  upon  his  own  hand,  but  instead  she 
placed  the  point  of  a  pin  upon  one  of  his  gaunt 
knuckles  and  twirled  it !  Out  of  all  the  devilment 
that  lay  in  her  she  had  selected  this  trifling  action 
as  being  the  most  contemptuous  within  her  inven 
tion,  and,  laughing  in  his  face,  she  swept  from  the 
room  and  sent  a  page  for  Elsie.  She  rejoined  the 
others  upon  the  balcony,  laughing  from  sheer  light- 
heartedness,  and  nestled  down  in  a  chair  close  by 
Phillip,  who  sat  upon  the  rail.  In  the  dimness  she 
even  rested  her  forearm  across  his  knee  and  shared 
with  the  others  their  increasing  pleasure  in  the  re 
turns  from  outlying  country  districts,  where  the 
vote  had  been  almost  to  a  man  for  Kelvin  and  Rol 
lins.  Occasionally  bulletins  were  brought  to  them 
and  read  aloud  to  them  from  the  open  window,  but 
Blagg  no  longer  appeared,  the  messages  now  being 
brought  by  his  assistant.  Slowly  the  lost  ground 
was  regained.  The  returns  from  the  districts  where 
Blagg's  influence  had  been  paramount,  if  he  had  told 
the  truth,  were  apparently  all  in,  and  from  midnight 
it  was  but  a  mere  matter  of  the  slow  rolling  up  of 
a  majority.  By  one  o'clock  the  election  of  Kelvin 
and  Rollins  was  assured  beyond  all  possibility  of  a 
doubt,  and  telegrams  of  congratulation  began  to 


THE  MISSING  DESK  DAGGER     279 

pour  in;  and,  tired  but  exultant,  the  watchers  came 
in  from  the  balcony.  Rollins,  as  he  entered  the 
room,  turned  and  shook  hands  with  Kelvin. 

"  Well,  we've  won,"  said  he.  "  It  seems  that 
Mr.  Blagg's  organization  of  patriots  was  not  so 
powerful  after  all." 

"  Blagg ! "  exclaimed  Senator  Sawyer,  and 
laughed  heartily.  "Wasn't  that  a  curious  thing? 
I  shall  always  remember  your  man  Blagg." 

"  Yes,  you  shall  remember  Blagg,  all  of  you ! " 
shrieked  a  voice,  and,  turning,  they  saw  the  tall, 
thin  form  of  the  wireless  operator  standing  in  the 
doorway.  Before  any  one  could  divine  his  intention 
he  had  sprung  at  Phillip. 

Something  glittered  in  the  light  as  he  raised  his 
arm,  and  flashed  as  he  brought  it  down;  and  Kelvin 
dropped  to  the  floor.  Blagg  sprang  for  the  door  to 
the  hall,  but  met  Sam  coming  in,  and  Sam,  seeing 
Phillip  lying  upon  the  floor,  required  no  explanation. 
In  an  instant,  for  the  second  time  in  their  two  lives, 
his  hands  were  about  Blagg's  throat,  and  he  bore 
him  to  the  floor,  where,  snarling  and  moaning  like  a 
wild  beast  tearing  at  its  live  quarry,  he  began  that 
work  of  barbarity  for  which  his  blood  was  always 
lustful.  Horror-stricken,  Sawyer  and  Rensselaer 
and  Zelphan  and  the  attending  butler  rushed  to  drag 
Sam  away  from  his  victim,  while  Rollins  turned  his 
attention  to  Phillip.  It  had  all  happened  in  an  in- 


280  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

stant  —  the  stabbing  of  Phillip,  Sam's  assault  upon 
Blagg,  and  the  piling  of  the  other  men  upon  Sain 
—  and  in  that  instant  Elsie  White  had  shrieked 
and  thrown  herself  upon  her  knees  beside  Phillip's 
prostrate  form. 

"  Phillip !  "  she  cried  in  anguish,  and  in  that  cry 
the  secret  of  her  heart  was  made  known;  all  the 
pent-up  love  that  she  had  felt  for  him  and  had 
hidden  revealed  itself  in  that  wailing  call  upon  his 
name. 

Lillian  Breed,  her  face  inflamed  with  sudden  pas 
sion,  leaned  over  the  girl,  and,  grasping  her  by  the 
shoulders,  shook  her  violently  and  hissed  a  word  in 
her  ear  that  made  Elsie,  lost  to  her  surroundings  as 
she  was,  recoil  and  crimson  and  spring  to  her  feet. 
Lillian  followed  her  up  in  a  storm  of  passion  and 
upbraided  her  with  foul  insinuations,  discharged 
her,  and  called  upon  a  page  to  have  the  girl  thrown 
bodily  into  the  street. 

In  the  meantime  Phillip  had  opened  his  eyes,  and 
a  moment  later  raised  himself  to  his  elbow,  feeling 
at  his  heart.  Rollins  helped  him  to  a  sitting  posi 
tion,  just  in  the  midst  of  the  pandemonium,  when 
Sam  was  being  torn  away  from  Blagg  and  Lillian 
was  wreaking  her  fury  upon  Elsie. 

"  Are  you  badly  hurt  ?  "  asked  Rollins. 

"  No,  I  think  not,"  replied  Phillip,  dazed.  "  I 
think  I  was  only  stunned  by  the  force  of  the  blow. 


THE  MISSING  DESK  DAGGER       281 

I  doubt  if  I  even  have  a  flesh  wound/'  and  taking 
Rollins'  hand  he  rose  to  his  feet  and  sat  in  a  chair. 

It  was  in  that  moment  that  Rollins  saw  Lillian 
raise  her  hand  to  strike  Elsie,  and  he  sprang  in  be 
tween  them,  putting  a  protecting  arm  around  Elsie's 
shoulder. 

Lillian  laughed  shrilly.  "  It  seems  that  my  clever 
little  strumpet  has  aroused  the  gallantry  of  more 
than  one  of  my  friends,"  she  charged. 

"  No,"  returned  Rollins  calmly,  "  I  only  love  her, 
and  I'm  going  to  call  a  cab  and  send  her  over  to  my 
mother  at  the  Hotel  Spuyten." 

The  disturbance  rose  anew  in  the  group  about 
the  door.  Rensselaer  and  Doctor  Zelphan  had  Sam 
on  the  floor  on  his  back,  struggling  and  sobbing 
and  begging  to  be  let  go  that  he  might  "  drink 
Blagg's  blood."  Senator  Sawyer  and  the  attending 
butler  had  raised  Blagg  to  his  feet  and  stood  with 
him  near  the  door.  He  was  ashen  white  and  was 
quivering  all  over.  His  hands  were  at  his  throat, 
and  he  was  gasping  for  breath.  Thin  little  streams 
of  blood  were  running  down  the  corners  of  his 
mouth. 

"  Send  for  a  policeman,"  the  butler  ordered  the 
bewildered  page. 

"  No,"  interposed  Kelvin.  "  Don't  do  that.  Let 
the  man  go.  It  is  not  good  policy  to  have  this 
known." 


282  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Sawyer,  panting  for  breath,  nodded  his  head  vig 
orously.  "  You  are  quite  right,  Mr.  Kelvin,"  said 
he,  and  stepped  away  from  Blagg's  side. 

"  You  are  letting  me  go  at  your  own  peril,'' 
warned  Blagg,  gasping  out  the  words  with  a  diffi 
culty  that  contorted  his  face.  But  he  had  abated 
no  particle  of  his  rage. 

"If  you  stay  it  will  be  at  yours,"  returned  Phillip 
and  got  upon  his  feet. 

As  he  did  so  something  heavy  and  metallic  and 
bright  dropped  to  the  floor.  Blagg  took  a  step  for 
ward,  stopped,  laughed  bitterly  and  tottered  out 
into  the  hall. 

Kelvin  stooped  and  picked  up  the  object  that  had 
fallen.  It  was  the  heavy  paper-weight  dagger  that 
Blagg  had  stolen  from  Phillip's  desk  a  year  before, 
and  its  point  had  now  clung  in  Kelvin's  clothing 
until  this  movement.  Phillip  held  it  up  by  its  tip. 

"  That's  twice  this  thing  has  threatened  me,"  said 
he,  "  and  each  time  it  has  failed.  I  think  I  shall 
keep  it  as  my  emblem  and  my  talisman." 

An  unusual  commotion  arose  in  the  street,  and 
glancing  out  the  window,  they  saw  flashed  upon 
the  bulletin  the  announcement  that  both  Kelvin  and 
Rollins  were  in  the  rooms  exactly  opposite  the 
screen.  There  were  loud  cheers  and  calls  for  Kel 
vin.  He  looked  inquiringly  at  Senator  Sawyer. 

"  It's  none  of  my  doing,"  declared  the  senator, 


THE  MISSING  DESK  DAGGER      283 

"  but  there  was  no  keeping  it  from  them  all  night. 
I  only  wonder  they  didn't  find  you  before.  You'd 
better  show  yourself  and  say  a  few  words,  I  guess." 

Kelvin  advanced  hesitatingly  to  the  window  and 
held  out  his  hand  for  Rollins  to  come  with  him. 
Before  he  emerged  upon  the  balcony,  he  turned  and 
once  more  held  up  the  dagger.  He  noticed  as  he  did 
so,  however,  that  it  stood  in  the  shape  of  a  cross, 
and  he  immediately  reversed  it,  with  the  glittering 
point  in  the  air. 

"  '  In  this  sign  I  conquer,'  "  he  laughingly  quoted, 
and  then  he  went  out  upon  the  balcony  to  exhibit 
himself  as  president-elect  of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

PRESIDENT    KELVIN    ASSURES    HERBERT    RENSSELAER 
THAT    HE    HAS    NO    CLAIM    ON    LILLIAN 

SENATOR  Sawyer,  after  having  awaited  his 
turn  for  nearly  an  hour  in  the  outer  offices, 
came  red- faced  with  anger  into  the  presence 
of  President  Kelvin. 

"  By  George,  it's  true !  "  he  spluttered,  looking 
about  him.  "  At  first  I  thought  it  a  newspaper  joke, 
but  it's  true !  " 

"  What  is  this  amazing  truth  ?  "  asked  Kelvin 
quietly. 

"  Why,  that  you  are  polluting  the  White  House 
with  all  the  pomp  and  trappings  of  actual  royalty!  " 

The  portly  senator,  who  had  thriven  upon  blatant 
democracy  all  his  life,  who  declaimed  it  from  public 
platforms  and  flaunted  it  in  public  print  at  every 
opportunity,  who  wore  ready-made  clothing  back 
home  but  maintained  a  most  aristocratic  establish 
ment  in  Washington,  pursed  up  his  lips  and  glared 
about  him  in  fine  indignation.  A  low  platform  had 
been  erected  in  the  end  of  this  apartment,  and  upon 
it  stood  a  richly  carved,  flat-top  mahogany  desk, 

284 


NO  CLAIM  ON  LILLIAN  285 

while  behind  this  sat  Kelvin  in  an  enormous  high- 
backed  chair,  strikingly  suggestive  of  a  throne.  On 
one  side  of  him  stood  Sam,  and  on  the  other  a 
huge,  ebony  black  negro  exactly  matching  Sam  ex 
cept  for  that  livid  scar  upon  his  ugly  left  cheek. 
Both  of  them  were  clad  in  blue-and-gold  liveries 
which  matched  the  decorations,  the  rich  tapestry, 
and  the  heavy  rug,  and  of  which  they  were  conspic 
uously  proud.  Besides  Phillip's  there  was  not  an 
other  chair  in  the  apartment,  it  being  the  obvious 
intent  that  visitors  should  stand !  This,  for  the 
senator,  was  the  last  straw. 

"  I  do  not  understand  what  you  mean  by  it,"  Mr. 
Sawyer  went  on,  contracting  his  bushy  white  eye 
brows.  "  The  entire  press  of  the  country  is  aflame 
with  it.  When  I  picked  up  my  paper  in  Chicago 
yesterday  morning,  and  read  of  the  alterations  you 
had  made,  I  was  astounded.  I  took  the  first  train 
out  and  came  straight  here." 

"  Very  prompt  and  decisive  in  you,  I  am  sure,'* 
returned  Kelvin  with  open  sarcasm. 

"  Prompt  and  decisive  action  is  necessary  to  save 
the  party,"  the  senator  hotly  retorted ;  "  and  the 
country,"  he  added  as  an  after-thought.  "  While 
you  were  installing  yourself  in  all  this  extravagant 
claptrap,  I  saw,  as  I  went  to  the  train  in  Chicago, 
that  monster  parade  of  the  unemployed.  This  morn 
ing  I  read  of  the  brutal  and  unprovoked  police  at- 


286  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

tack  upon  them,  of  the  riot  which  followed,  of  the 
calling  out  of  the  state  troops,  of  the  killing  of  a 
score  of  men,  and  of  your  edict  late  last  night  plac 
ing  the  city  under  martial  law.  That  is  a  long  score 
added  to  your  account,  Kelvin.  To  the  twenty  killed 
in  Chicago  add  the  seventeen  killed  in  Philadelphia, 
the  nine  in  Cincinnati,  and  the  six  in  St.  Louis,  and 
you  have  more  than  I  would  care  to  carry  on  my 
conscience." 

"  What  did  you  come  to  see  me  about,  Senator  ?  " 
demanded  Kelvin  coldly.  "  You  will  please  make 
your  errand  known  as  directly  and  as  briefly  as  pos 
sible.  There  are  many  others  waiting." 

"  I  came  to  protest  against  your  entire  adminis 
tration  !  "  blazed  Sawyer,  fanning  himself  into  an 
excellently  dramatic  fury.  "  Before  your  nomina 
tion,  to  gain  the  influence  of  certain  powerful  cor 
porations,  you  had  Vice-President  Rollins,  as 
manager  of  the  united  railroad  system  of  the 
United  States,  give  them  valuable  rebate  con 
cessions.  Since  your  election  you  have,  through 
Pellman,  who  succeeded  Rollins  as  czar  of  the  rail 
roads,  stopped  every  concession,  and  forced  a  per 
fect  riot  of  restrictive  legislation.  By  that  means 
you  have  scattered  into  small  units  every  influential 
combination  in  the  country,  with  the  result  that  the 
unthinking  people  hailed  you  as  the  King  of  Trust- 
Killers.  They  are  now  beginning  to  see  their  folly 


NO  CLAIM  ON  LILLIAN  287 

• — and  yours.  With  your  railroad  policy,  legisla 
tive  meddling,  and  artificially  produced  money 
stringency,  you  have  stopped  mills  and  factories  by 
the  hundred,  and  have  disrupted  the  entire  industrial 
system  of  the  country." 

"  Precisely  what  was  needed,"  was  the  surprising 
reply.  "  Next  will  come  the  readjustment.  We 
shall  return  to  the  era  of  smaller  competitive  con 
cerns  and  a  far  better  distribution  of  wealth." 

"  I  do  not  believe  it,"  snapped  the  senator.  "  To 
me  such  conditions  would  look  like  going  backward. 
Left  to  itself,  the  trust  and  combine  and  monopoly 
situation  would  work  out  its  own  salvation,  for 
these  aggregations  of  units  were  in  the  line  of  logical 
commercial  progress ;  but  while  we  stand  here  argu 
ing  this  purely  abstract  question,  there  are  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  workmen  out  of  employment,  and 
the  number  of  this  vast,  hungry  army  is  increasing 
every  day  at  an  appalling  rate.  While  you  sit  here 
in  oriental  splendor,  backed  by  Henry  Breed's  bil 
lions  and  worth  money  enough  in  your  own  name 
to  buy  you  food  and  clothing  and  fuel  and  a  roof 
for  your  head  for  a  thousand  years  —  if  you  should 
live  that  long  —  a  hundred  thousand  men  are  on  the 
verge  of  starvation.  They  are  desperate  men,  and 
some  relief  must  be  offered  them  at  once.  What 
are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?  " 

"  Go   right   on  with   my   program,"   announced 


288  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Kelvin  calmly,  picking  up  from  his  desk  a  heavy 
paper-knife  made  in  the  shape  of  a  dagger  and  toy 
ing  with  it. 

"  You  will  not  go  right  on  with  it !  "  declared  the 
senator,  striking  his  closed  fist  upon  a  corner  of  Kel 
vin's  desk.  Upon  his  rotund  cheeks  a  fine  network 
of  veins  sprang  suddenly  red.  "  You're  going  to 
have  a  revolt  on  your  hands  in  both  the  Senate  and 
House." 

"  And  I  suppose  that  you  will  lead  the  revolt  in 
the  Senate,"  suggested  Kelvin  quietly. 

"If  need  be,  sir!"  thundered  the  senator.  "I 
know  at  what  you  are  hinting  —  that  my  self-inter 
est  will  stand  in  the  way;  but  I  hope,  sir,  I  am 
sufficiently  patriotic  that  when  my  country  calls  I 
shall  answer  her  cry  of  distress." 

"  Exactly,"  rejoined  Phillip  dryly.  "  I  would  ex 
pect  nothing  else  from  a  gentleman  of  your  well- 
known  patriotism.  I  can  imagine  you  responding, 
in  clarion  tones,  to  your  country's  cry  of  distress, 
and  being  echoed  by  columns  upon  columns  of  ex 
cellent  publicity.  In  the  meantime  you  owe  consid 
erable  personal  debts  of  which  I  could  almost  give 
you  an  accurate  scale;  you  are  hard  pressed  at  this 
moment  for  money;  you  have  a  stiff  mortgage  on 
your  house  in  Washington  and  an  equally  heavy 
one  on  your  place  out  West,  both  of  which  mort 
gages  have  eventually  found  their  way  into  the 


NO  CLAIM  ON  LILLIAN  289 

hands  of  Mr.  Breed,  which,  perhaps,  you  did  not 
know." 

Senator  Sawyer  was  shocked  into  highly  uncom 
fortable  silence. 

"  You,  at  least,  are  not  going  to  revolt,"  went  on 
Phillip,  "  and  I  might  say,  in  passing,  that  what 
ever  feeble  attempt  at  insubordination  manifests 
itself,  in  either  house,  will  be  promptly  and  effect 
ively  extinguished.  In  other  words,  Senator,  if  you 
came  here  representing  any  clique  or  combination  of 
law-peddlers,  you  may  go  back  and  tell  them  that  I 
intend  to  have  my  way,  first,  last,  and  all  the  time ! 
I  know  precisely  what  I  am  doing,  and  I  shall  not 
permit  any  interference.  Did  you  come  upon  any 
other  errand?  " 

The  senator's  red-faced  rage  had  given  way  to 
pale-faced  apprehension. 

"  About  those  mortgages,"  he  said,  shifting  un 
easily.  "  I  don't  suppose  that  there  will  be  any 
present  trouble  about  them." 

"  I  couldn't  say,  I'm  sure,"  returned  Kelvin. 
"  You'll  have  to  see  the  head  of  Mr.  Breed's  real- 
estate  department  about  that." 

The  senator,  much  crest-fallen  and  quite  a 
different  man  from  the  one  who  had  come  in  to  give 
Kelvin  a  piece  of  his  mind,  was  about  to  retire  when 
Phillip  stopped  him. 

"  By  the   way,    Senator,"   he   offered,    "  if  you 


290  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

should  need  any  ready  cash  my  private  purse  is  open 
to  you  to  the  extent  of,  say,  a  thousand." 

The  senator  \vheeled  instantly.  Upon  his  shoul 
ders  there  always  pressed  a  burden  of  urgent  small 
bills  that  worried  him  far  more  than  the  heavy 
mortgages  which  he  was  unable  to  cancel.  They 
were,  in  fact,  unbearable,  and  he  was  habitually  in 
the  position  of  being  almost  willing  to  barter  away 
his  soul  to  be  delivered  from  under  them. 

"If  you  can  accommodate  me  with  a  trifling  tem 
porary  loan  —  of  a  thousand  for  sixty  days,  say  — 
I  would  appreciate  it  very  much,"  he  said,  smiling 
ingratiatingly. 

"  No  trouble  at  all,"  said  Phillip  pleasantly,  and 
immediately  began  writing  out  a  check. 

The  senator  was  followed  by  a  procession  of 
office-seekers  and  favor-hunters  of  whom  Kelvin 
disposed  briefly,  and  then  came  Rollins.  The  vice- 
president,  in  his  year  of  office,  had  undergone  as 
striking  a  change  as  the  president.  Upon  Kelvin's 
clean-cut  features  there  sat  a  new  sternness,  born  of 
a  determination  which  never  faltered  by  day  or  by 
night.  With  Rollins  the  change  was  one  of  gravity 
rather  than  of  sternness,  and  much  recent  worry 
had  left  him  pale. 

"  Kelvin,  we  have  been  wrong  from  the  first,"  he 
confessed,  after  brief  greetings.  "  You  are  carry 
ing  out  many  of  the  alleged  reforms  over  which  we 


NO  CLAIM  ON  LILLIAN  291 

talked,  but  they  are  not  reforms.  The  ultimate  aim 
was  right,  but  the  means  are  wrong.  They  are  too 
violent,  too  drastic,  and  they  have  only  succeeded 
in  disturbing  the  economic  system  to  an  appalling 
extent." 

"  Not  to  any  greater  extent  than  I  had  calcu 
lated,"  returned  Kelvin.  He  appeared  much  more 
anxious,  by  his  tone,  to  convince  Rollins  than  he 
had  been  to  appease  Senator  Sawyer.  "  This  con 
fusion  must  prevail  in  the  interim  between  the  pass 
ing  away  of  the  old  order  of  things  and  the  institu 
tion  of  the  new.  You  will  see  that  the  period  of 
suffering  will  be  but  a  brief  one,  and  that  we  shall 
emerge  from  the  entire  revolution  —  for  it  amounts 
to  nothing  less  —  upon  a  sounder  basis  than  any 
commonwealth  in  the  history  of  the  world,  with  a 
larger  ultimate  percentage  of  happiness  than  here 
tofore  enjoyed  by  any  state." 

Rollins  shook  his  head.  "  You  are  mistaken," 
said  he  earnestly.  "  No  peaceable  economic  read 
justment  is  possible  when  any  large  number  of  the 
members  of  the  body  politic  have  reached  the  stage 
of  starving  desperation." 

"  You  don't  see  very  far,  Rollins,"  replied  Kel 
vin  patiently.  "  You  are  basing  all  your  calculations 
for  new  emergencies  upon  old  principles.  You  are 
trying  to  find  compound  interest  by  the  formula  for 
cube  root.  Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  the  solu- 


292  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

tion  of  all  our  economic  difficulties  might  be  found 
in  an  entirely  new  system  of  government?  " 

Rollins  looked  at  him  steadily  while  a  slow  flush 
mounted  to  his  forehead.  "  Kelvin,"  said  he,  very 
gravely,  "  this  is  not  the  first  time  I  have  heard  you 
hint  at  such  things.  One  of  my  ancestors  assisted 
in  the  drafting  of  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  signed  it.  Several  of  them  fought  to 
uphold  it.  It  is  the  most  perfect  in  conception,  the1 
broadest  in  humanitarianism,  the  most  complete  in 
wisdom,  of  any  human  document  upon  which  a  state 
was  ever  founded.  If  it  is  tampered  with  in  any 
way,  or  if  any  attempt  is  made  to  supplant  it,  I  warn 
you  that  the  sons  of  the  men  who  framed  it  and 
who  died  for  it  will  rise  up  to  defend  it  in  a 
righteous  wrath  second  only  to  the  rage  of  the  Al 
mighty;  and  by  the  eternal  God  I  will  be  foremost 
among  their  number !  " 

There  was  no  bombast  about  his  statement.  He 
had  scarcely  raised  the  pitch  of  his  voice,  and  yet 
there  was  in  his  tone  such  deadly  earnestness  that 
Kelvin,  accustomed  to  treating  his  advisers  and  his 
dissenters  alike  with  half -concealed  contempt,  was 
bound  to  pay  him  serious  attention. 

'  You  are  far  too  logical  a  man,  Rollins,  to  speak 
in  definite  judgment  upon  a  problem  until  you  know 
its  full  conditions,"  he  protested.  "  I  do  contem 
plate  a  change,  and  a  radical  one,  in  our  type  of 


NO  CLAIM  ON  LILLIAN  293 

government.  That  change  can  only  be  made  pos 
sible  of  success,  it  can  only  result  in  the  greatest 
good  to  the  greatest  number,  by  its  being  fostered 
and  upheld  and  set  in  motion  by  men  of  tried  and 
tested  probity,  ability,  and  strength.  Among  such 
men  I  count  you.  I  rely  upon  your  support,  and  I 
want  to  tell  you  that  if  this  change  seems  feasible, 
I  have  in  store  for  you  a  far  higher  office  than  the 
one  you  hold  now,  one  far  more  important  and 
powerful  for  good  than  the  one  even  I  hold  at  the 
present  time." 

Rollins  glanced  about  the  room  with  contempt. 
"  I  do  not  want  it,"  he  declared,  "  nor  do  I  wish  to 
be  taken  any  further  into  your  confidence.  Any 
system  of  government  which  needs  to  be  supported 
by  force  —  else  why  the  enormous  standing  army 
you  are  now  accumulating  ?  —  must  result  in  oppres 
sion,  tyranny,  and  ultimate  failure.  I  know  now 
that  any  change  in  government  which  you  would 
propose  would  be  a  retrogression,  and  for  my  part 
I  shall  resist  every  such  change,  even  to  the  minutest 
degree,  with  every  atom  of  my  will,  with  every 
breath  of  my  voice,  with  every  drop  of  blood  in  my 
body!" 

"  Precisely  why  I  want  you  with  us,"  returned 
Kelvin  with  the  remarkable  patience  possessed  only 
by  men  of  one  dominating  idea  to  which  everything 
else  is  subservient.  "  I  like  your  principles  and  the 


294  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

way  you  present  them,  but  I  hope  yet  to  show  you 
why,  not  from  self-interest  but  from  humanitarian 
motives,  you  should  approve  the  course  I  propose." 
He  was  silent  and  thoughtful  for  a  moment.  Both 
by  instinct  and  experience  he  knew  Rollins  to  be  of 
tremendous  personal  force.  "  I'll  talk  with  you 
again  about  this.  In  the  meantime  is  there  nothing 
I  can  do  for  you  in  the  way  of  appointments  or 
something  of  the  sort?  " 

"  Nothing  whatever,"  said  Rollins  shortly,  and 
left  the  room. 

He  was  followed  immediately  by  Herbert  Rensse- 
laer,  who  came  in  so  briskly  that  one  who  had 
known  him  in  his  dawdling  club  days  would  scarcely 
have  recognized  him  now.  On  him  a  year  of  office 
as  Secretary  of  War  had  wrought  wonderful 
maturity. 

"  Hello,  Phillip  the  First,"  said  he,  advancing  to 
the  desk  and  shaking  hands  heartily  with  Kelvin. 

"  I  wish  you  wouldn't  use  that  form  of  address," 
protested  Phillip  quietly.  "  You  might  say  it  in  the 
wrong  place.  How  goes  the  enrolment  ?  " 

"  Splendidly,"  returned  Rensselaer  with  enthu 
siasm.  "  The  army  of  the  unemployed  is  rapidly 
becoming  the  Army  of  the  Republic.  The  increase 
of  my  enlistment  is  almost  in  exact  proportion  to 
the  decrease  in  industry,  almost  in  exact  proportion 
to  the  increase  in  riots,  and  our  recruiting-stations 


NO  CLAIM  ON  LILLIAN  295 

are  really  busier  places  than  the  bread-stations. 
Kelvin,  to-day  you  are  commander-in-chief  of  an 
army  of  nearly  half  a  million  men." 

"  And  still  we  have  not  enough,"  declared  Kel 
vin.  "  I  must  have  the  largest  army  in  the  world ; 
the  largest  army  in  the  world."  He  was  not  ad 
dressing  Rensselaer  now,  but  himself;  lost  in  vast 
speculation,  he  fell  into  musing  silence. 

"  By  the  way,  old  chap,"  ventured  Rensselaer 
presently,  "  I'd  like  to  speak  with  you  about  a  rather 
delicate  matter,  one  I  wouldn't  dream  of  mentioning 
if  it  were  not  for  our  long  friendship  during  and 
since  the  old  cowboy  days.  It's  about  Miss  Breed. 
Er  —  now  don't  take  this  amiss,  Phill  —  are  you 
contemplating  anything  serious  in  that  direction?" 

Kelvin  was  silent  for  so  long  that  Herbert  began 
to  think  he  had  not  heard,  but  presently  he  answered, 
"  Nothing  whatever." 

"Sure?"  Herbert  asked. 

"  Absolutely,"  Kelvin  replied. 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Herbert  slowly.  "  Rather  a 
caddish  question,  I  know,  Phill,  but  between  us  — " 
He,  too,  lapsed  into  troubled  silence. 

Kelvin  seemed  to  be  about  to  say  something  more, 
but  he  did  not. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

TWO  GENTLEMEN   MAKE  MARRIAGE  PROPOSALS,  AND 
DOCTOR    ZELPHAN    POINTS    OUT    AMERICA'S    DISEASE 

<  ( f~^\  AMT^lo  you  think  that  in  a  fight  I  could 
^^^  rely  on  your  brother  Peavy  as  I  could  on 
1<-J  you  ?  "  asked  Kelvin  as  he  was  dressing  for 
dinner  that  night. 

"  'Deed  Ah  doan'  know,  sah,"  answered  Sam, 
putting  the  studs  in  Phillip's  shirt.  "  He's  kin'  o' 
no  'count  anyhow.  When  Ah  foun'  'im  in  Philan- 
delphy  he  look  jes'  lak  one  o'  dem  cotton-field  han's, 
widout'n  no  clothes  'ceptin'  'bout  two  rags  an'  a 
string,  an'  he  wah  a-loafin'  roun'  one  o'  these  hyah 
low-down  holes  whar  they  sell  nigger  gin  fo'  three 
cents.  O'  co'se,  senct  he's  got  on  fahn  clothes  an'  is 
one  o'  yo'  body  sehvants,  he's  feelin'  maghty  big- 
gity;  but  Ah  doan'  reckon  Ah'd  place  too  much 
'liance  on  Peavy  in  a  pinch." 

"  Well,  we'll  keep  him  for  his  looks  then,"  said 
Kelvin,  laughing.  "  You  want  to  be  careful, 
though,  that  he  doesn't  steal  Lucy  from  you." 

"  Lucy !  Huh !  "  grunted  Sam,  brushing  the  last 
speck  of  dust  from  Kelvin's  pumps.  "  Ef  that 

296 


TWO  GENTLEMEN  PROPOSE      297 

wuthless  coon  eveh  tuhns  up  the  whites  o'  his  eyes 
t'wahd  Lucy,  Ah's  goan  t'  breck  ev'y  bone  in  his 
body.  Heh  —  heh!  Lucy!"  and  Sam  grinned  un 
til  the  scar  on  his  cheek  bent  itself  into  the  shape  of 
a  sickle. 

"  You  don't  want  to  be  too  sure,  Sam,"  cautioned 
Kelvin,  fastening  his  collar.  "  Peavy's  as  big  as  you 
are  to  the  exact  inch,  and  I  imagine  he  weighs  as 
much  as  you  to  the  exact  pound.  Do  you  think  you 
could  whip  him  ?  " 

"Whip  'im!"  repeated  Sam.  "  \Vhy,  Mistuh 
Phillip,"  he  went  on  earnestly  and  with  absolute 
conviction,  "  yo'  see  them  two  han's  o'  mine  ?  Well, 
sah,  wid  them  two  han's  Ah  kin  lick  ary  man  in  all 
this  worl' !  " 

Kelvin,  however,  tiring  of  the  banter,  had  strayed 
to  the  table  in  the  corner  of  his  dressing-room, 
where  lay  spread  out  one  of  the  inevitable  diagrams 
with  which  he  had  planned  all  his  projects;  a  huge 
white  sheet  of  cardboard,  with  an  outline  map  of  the 
LTnited  States  drawn  upon  it,  and  with  figures  here 
and  there  contiguous  to  large  cities.  Over  these 
he  studied  as  he  mechanically  adjusted  his  tie. 

"  Sam,  in  the  inside  pocket  of  the  coat  I  just  took 
off,  you  will  find  some  reports  given  to  me  by  Mr. 
Rensselaer,"  he  presently  directed.  "  Bring  them 
here."  From  the  papers  Sam  brought,  he  entered 
some  figures  on  the  diagram,  and  once  more  re- 


298  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

viewed  the  entire  situation.  So  many  troops  massed 
here,  so  many  there,  so  many  in  that  other  place,  at 
stations  scattered  thickly  from  coast  to  coast  and 
from  Lakes  to  Gulf;  grand  total  so  many.  He  nod 
ded  his  head  in  satisfaction,  sweeping  his  eye  over 
his  diagram.  It  became  no  longer  a  mere  square  of 
white  cardboard,  but  a  vast,  populous,  fertile  coun 
try,  comprising  hills  and  meadows  and  lakes,  moun 
tains  and  plains  and  mighty  rivers,  cities  and  villages 
and  rural  homes;  a  land  of  boundless  extent,  of 
boundless  resources,  of  boundless  wealth  and 
beauty;  and  over  this,  all  this,  he  had  domain! 
The  little  points  upon  his  map  were  no  longer 
mere  figures,  but  regiments  of  stalwart  men 
clad  in  the  khaki  of  the  United  States  govern 
ment.  He  could  hear  the  tramp  of  their  feet,  the 
click  of  their  guns,  the  clank  of  their  sabers.  The 
ground  shook  under  their  rhythmic  tread,  while  na 
tions  heard  and  trembled ;  and  these,  all  these,  were 
of  his  dominion! 

As  he  finished  the  last  touch  of  his  dressing  he 
walked  to  the  window.  The  twilight  had  fallen,  and 
above  him  in  the  dusky  sky  there  shone  out  one 
solitary  silver  star,  as  if  it  might  be  the  star  of  his 
destiny !  He  smiled  at  the  absurd  thought,  and  yet, 
accepting  the  star  as  at  least  a  symbol  of  his  fate, 
his  soul  went  out  to  it,  swollen  with  dreams  too 
great,  too  vast,  too  daring  for  utterance;  dreams 


TWO  GENTLEMEN  PROPOSE        299 

that  he  dare  not  even  speak  aloud  to  himself  lest  he 
should  incur  his  own  ridicule.  An  insatiate  ambi 
tion  had  taken  possession  of  him.  It  had  always 
been  there,  he  realized  now,  but  it  had  grown  with 
his  years  and  his  opportunities.  It  had  grown  until 
it  encompassed  the  seas  and  the  land  beyond,  until 
it  encircled  the  earth,  and,  finding  there  not  suf 
ficient  food  for  its  boundless  hunger,  swept  on,  like 
the  dreams  of  Alexander,  to  other  worlds,  to  other 
universes,  to  the  conquest  even  of  yon  bright  star! 
Suddenly,  laughing  aloud  at  the  folly  of  his  own 
immeasurable  fancies,  he  wheeled,  and,  slipping  on 
the  outer  coat  that  Sam  held  for  him,  took  his  hat 
and  left  the  room. 

At  the  porte-cochere  he  found  waiting  a  limou 
sine,  with  an  open  car  before  and  behind  it,  each 
of  these  extra  cars  carrying  four  silent  and  alert 
members  of  the  secret  service.  Peavy  already  sat 
beside  the  chauffeur  of  the  limousine,  and  Sam  fol 
lowed  Kelvin  into  it,  upon  which  all  three  of  the 
autos  moved  away.  Just  beyond  Dupont  Circle  they 
were  delayed  by  a  congestion  of  carriages  and 
limousines  in  front  of  an  ambassadorial  residence. 
Kelvin  glanced  idly  at  the  stream  of  entering  guests 
and  then  turned  his  attention  to  the  house  next  door, 
which  was  the  one  occupied  by  Rollins  and  his 
mother.  In  the  entrance,  under  the  brilliant  illumi 
nation  of  the  vestibule  light,  stood  a  girl  whom,  with 


300  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

a  sudden  painful  stirring  at  his  heart,  he  recognized 
as  Elsie  White,  now  Mrs.  Rollins'  companion.  She 
had  loved  him,  this  girl,  loved  him,  he  knew,  with 
an  unselfish  heart  ever  since  he  had  been  a  penniless 
prospector  years  before;  loved  him  yet,  he  was  sure; 
and  he  had  neglected  this  gift,  had  thrown  it  away! 
There  had  come  upon  him  latterly,  intruding  itself 
between  and  among  his  stupendous  ambitions,  a 
strange,  new  sense  of  loneliness.  Then,  too,  per 
haps,  that  other  dalliance  in  which  the  strength  of 
his  virility  and  the  madness  of  his  blood  had  per 
mitted  him  to  indulge,  had  taught  him  to  value  the 
worth  and  the  purity  of  this  girl  and  her  heart. 

With  a  feeling  of  poignant  jealousy,  in  the  detec 
tion  of  which  he  was  impatient  with  himself,  he  in 
spected  the  man  who  was  talking  with  her.  The 
man's  back  was  to  the  street,  and  he  was  rather 
short  and  heavy-set.  Kelvin  could  not  make  him 
out,  though  he  seemed  familiar.  Another  man,  tall 
and  thin  and  walking  with  a  quick,  nervous  stride, 
came  up  and  spoke  to  the  two  in  the  doorway.  The 
heavy-set  man  turned,  and  Kelvin  recognized  in  him 
Elsie's  father,  but  he  turned  quickly  from  his  in 
spection  of  this  man  to  the  new  one,  whose  gaunt 
features,  as  they  revealed  themselves  in  the  light, 
proved  to  be  those  of  George  Blagg.  Kelvin,  from 
within  his  closed  car,  saw  White  start  away  with 
Blagg,  and  Elsie  apparently  striving  to  coax  him 


TWO  GENTLEMEN  PROPOSE       301 

back.  She  even  came  out  to  the  edge  of  the  walk 
and  put  her  hand  upon  his  arm.  Blagg,  however, 
stepped  roughly  between  them,  and  taking  White's 
arm  walked  away  with  him.  An  opening  was  made 
just  then  in  the  crush  of  carriages,  and  Kelvin's  cars 
moved  on. 

They  stopped  again  before  a  magnificent  resi 
dence  recently  vacated  by  a  notorious  railroad  sena 
tor  who  had  not  been  "  found  available."  Here 
Kelvin,  attended  by  two  of  his  guards,  ascended  the 
broad  flight  of  stone  steps,  while  Sam,  released  for 
the  time  being,  hurried  back  to  the  rear  of  the  house 
in  search  of  Lucy.  Leaving  his  secret  service  men 
at  the  door,  Kelvin  found  awaiting  him,  in  the  gar 
ishly  decorated  library,  Henry  Breed.  The  old  man 
seemed  shrunken  since  Kelvin  had  last  seen  him, 
and  his  bald  head  exhibited  a  slight  tendency  to  nod 
rhythmically.  His  eyes  were  bright  and  keen  and 
shrewd,  however,  as  he  sat  eagerly  waiting  for  this 
caller. 

"  Well,  how  goes  it,  my  boy  ?  "  he  asked  in  his 
senile  old  voice,  rubbing  his  withered  hands  to 
gether. 

"  Beyond  our  expectations,  I  think,"  replied  Kel 
vin.  "  The  country  is  coming  to  exactly  that  state 
of  chaos  where  it  can  be  handled.  There  is  not  a 
city  nor  a  village  but  is  in  a  state  of  turmoil  and 
panic,  and  ready  for  anything,  just  so  it  is  a  change. 


302  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

I  am  having  a  little  trouble  in  forcing  through  the 
army  and  navy  appropriations,  but  I  shall  get  pre 
cisely  \vhat  I  want,  which  is  an  absolutely  free  hand. 
The  enlistment  is  proceeding  even  more  rapidly  than 
I  had  hoped.  Within  three  months  more  I  shall 
have  the  largest  and  most  efficient  army  ever  placed 
under  the  control  of  one  man." 

"Excellent!"  said  Breed.  "Excellent!  And 
then,  Kelvin,  things  must  be  settled  very  quickly; 
very  quickly  indeed.  My  cash  supply  is  not  in 
creasing.  It  stands  now  but  a  trifle  over  a  billion 
and  a  half.  Why,  even  the  government  could,  if 
it  chose,  control  nearly  as  much  cash  as  I  can. 
This  unsettled  condition,  of  course,  is  the  means 
to  an  end,  but  in  the  meantime  it  is  very  bad  for 
business.  Very  bad." 

"  I  don't  think  we'll  attempt  to  accumulate  much 
more  cash  for  a  long  time,"  announced  Kelvin.  "  In 
fact,  I  think  that  after  things  are  settled  down  we'll 
let  go  of  some  of  it." 

"  Let  go  of  it !  "  protested  Breed,  becoming  in 
stantly  excited.  "  Impossible !  Impossible !  Why, 
the  very  backbone  of  all  our  operations,  all  the 
force  that  has  made  us,  all  the  power  which 
has  given  us  control  of  public  utilities,  private 
business,  and  government  itself,  is  locked  up  in  that 
impregnable  vault  beneath  my  cellar  at  Forest 


TWO  GENTLEMEN  PROPOSE    303 

Lakes!  And  would  you  destroy  this  tremendous 
dynamo  by  weakening  it?  " 

"  No,"  said  Phillip  dryly.  "  I  do  not  aim  to  de 
stroy  it.  I  only  aim  to  use  it.  I  can  guarantee  you 
that  I  shall  propose  nothing  that  would  lessen  my 
own  grasp  of  public  affairs." 

Breed  was  thoughtful  for  a  moment,  and  then  he 
chuckled  and  nodded  his  head  voluntarily,  his  parch 
ment-like  face  breaking  into  leathern  wrinkles.  "  I 
guess  you  are  right,  my  boy,"  he  admitted.  "  I 
haven't  seen  you  do  anything  yet  that  would  lessen 
your  own  power;  nor  mine,"  he  added,  "  nor  mine. 
You  have  been  doing  wonderfully  well,  Phillip  — 
wonderfully  well.  But  come  with  me ;  I  have  a  sur 
prise  for  you." 

Up  into  his  own  suite  —  rooms,  all  of  them,  too 
ornate  and  gay  and  young  of  color  for  the  occu 
pancy  of  rusty  old  Henry  Breed  —  he  led  Kelvin, 
and  from  the  bottom  of  one  of  his  trunks  he  took 
a  heavy  robe  of  carmine  velvet  and  ermine,  with 
childish  delight  drawing  its  luxurious  folds  around 
his  tall  and  stooping  body.  From  the  hat-box  of 
his  trunk  he  took  a  wonderful  creation  in  gold  and 
jewels  and  set  it  upon  his  head.  He  brought  forth 
a  rod  of  polished  ebony  tipped  with  gold  and  set 
with  one  huge,  glittering  diamond  in  its  end,  then 
stood,  half  simpering,  before  Kelvin,  accoutered 


304  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

royally  with  robe  and  scepter  and  crown.  Kelvin 
could  scarcely  repress  a  smile,  and  yet,  with  all  ap 
parent  seriousness,  he  nodded  his  head  in  grave 
approval.  These  baubles  seemed  to  change  the  cur 
rent  of  Breed's  thought. 

"  The  Lord's  anointed,"  he  quavered,  holding 
forth  his  scepter  in  an  unsteady  hand.  "  Mine  is 
the  appointed  hand  to  chastise  my  people  for  their 
follies  and  their  ingratitude.  Mine  is  the  hand  to 
humble  them.  Mine  is  the  hand  to  set  them  anew 
in  the  paths  of  peace  and  plenty." 

Into  his  eyes  had  come  that  dilation  of  the  pupils 
which  Kelvin  recognized  instantly  as  a  return  of 
that  more  and  more  frequent  erraticism. 

"  It  is  a  very  handsome  outfit,  and  must  have 
cost  a  fortune,"  commented  Kelvin  briskly.  "  You 
don't  want  to  keep  them  here,  however." 

"  No,"  agreed  Breed.  "  I  only  wanted  to  show 
them  to  you.  I  just  got  them  to-day  from  Tif 
fany's,  to  —  to  have  them  handy  when  the  time 
comes,  you  know."  He  had  sunk  his  voice  here 
to  a  whisper.  "  I  had  intended  to  take  them  to 
Forest  Lakes,"  he  went  on,  "  but  —  but  we  might 
want  them  suddenly,  and  I'll  just  put  them  away 
here.  I've  made  a  hiding-place  since  I  bought  this 
house  for  Lillian.  I  found  I  could  not  do  without 
secret  quarters  somewhere.  I  can  trust  you,  of 
course;  but  only  you  and  Lillian." 


TWO  GENTLEMEN  PROPOSE        305 

He  waited  anxiously  for  Kelvin  to  reassure  him 
of  this,  and  then  took  a  big  suit-case  from  a  closet 
in  his  room  and  hurriedly  packed  the  expensive 
gauds  into  it. 

"  By  the  way,  Phillip,"  said  he  in  an  unusually 
wheedling  tone,  "  how  much  money  have  you  with 
you?" 

"  I  don't  know,"  returned  Kelvin,  a  trifle  sur 
prised.  "  A  little  over  a  hundred,  I  think." 

"  You  won't  need  it  to-night,  I  am  sure,"  said 
Breed.  "  You  can  get  some  any  place  when  you 
go  out,  if  you  do." 

"  Yes,"  assented  Kelvin,  reaching  his  hand  in  his 
pocket. 

"  I  have  need  for  a  little  ready  cash,"  Breed 
stated  expectantly ;  "  just  a  little  ready  cash." 

He  took  the  money  eagerly  and  counted  it  over 
and  over. 

"  One  hundred  and  fourteen  dollars,"  said  he, 
stuffing  it  deeply  into  his  pocket.  "  You  may  just 
charge  this  to  my  account." 

He  picked  up  the  suit-case  hurriedly. 

"  Go  down  to  the  library,"  he  directed.  "  I'll  re 
turn  in  a  few  moments,"  and  he  started  through  the 
hall  toward  the  back  stairway. 

Phillip  stood  looking  after  him  a  moment,  puz 
zled,  and  as  Breed  turned  the  corner  Doctor  Zel- 
phan  came  from  a  room  opposite.  He  too  looked 


306  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

at  the  retiring  form  of  Breed  and  then  turned  his 
thick  spectacles  in  Kelvin's  direction. 

"  Did  he  borrow  any  money  of  you?  "  he  asked 
abruptly,  every  hair  of  his  flaming  beard  apparently 
pointing  outward  in  indignant  query. 

"  One  hundred  and  fourteen  dollars,"  replied 
Kelvin,  smiling. 

"  I  knew  it,"  declared  Zelphan.  "  Don't  let  him 
have  any  more.  The  man  has  gone  money-mad. 
Do  you  know  that  on  account  of  all  that  cash  he  has 
stored  in  his  vault  at  Forest  Lakes  he  can't  stay  here 
more  than  two  days  at  a  time?  Even  while  he  is 
here  he  must  have  a  secret  hoard  to  gloat  over, 
and  has  built  him  a  steel  vault  in  the  cellar,  pro 
tected  by  three  combination  locks.  Every  time  he 
sees  a  dollar  of  cash  he  must  have  it.  He  borrows 
my  salary  from  me  regularly,  sometimes  the  very 
day  he  pays  it  to  me.  He  borrows  money  from 
Mrs.  Rensselaer,  from  Rollins,  from  Herbert,  from 
his  granddaughter,  even  from  the  servants,  and 
every  penny  of  it  he  hoards.  When  any  of  them 
protests  he  reluctantly  pays  it  back  by  check." 

"  I  did  not  know  that  he  was  so  weak,"  said  Kel 
vin  shocked.  "  I  have  been  aware  that  the  condi 
tion  was  growing  upon  him,  but  I  had  no  idea  that 
he  had  gone  so  far  with  his  eccentricities." 

"Eccentricities!"    snorted    the    doctor.     "He's 


TWO  GENTLEMEN  PROPOSE      307 

crazy ;  crazy  as  a  loon.  You're  all  crazy,  the  whole 
crowd  of  you,  victims  of  the  American  craving  for 
what  you  call  success.  Breed  is  mad  for  money; 
Mrs.  Rensselaer  is  mad  for  social  position;  her 
nephew  is  mad  for  military  conquest ;  Blagg  is  mad 
for  notoriety;  Lillian  Breed  is  a  neurotic,  mad  of 
itching  nerves,  of  passion  and  of  lust.  You  are  the 
maddest  of  them  all ;  mad  with  the  thirst  for  power ! 
You  are  representative,  each  of  you,  of  your  whole 
nation,  which  knows  no  peace,  no  content,  no  vic 
tory;  for  one  battle  gained  forms  only  a  vantage 
point  for  further  warfare,  until  you  die!  Your 
entire  race  is  neurasthenic  and,  combating  this, 
eaten  alive  of  a  wild  scramble  for  you  know  not 
what.  It  is  going  to  end  in  a  crash,  with  all  your 
institutions,  all  your  ideals,  all  your  ends  and  aims 
and  ambitions  clattering  down  about  your  ears,  the 
most  thoroughly  shattered  and  crumbled  wreck  and 
ruin  of  a  social  structure  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
As  nations  have  risen,  so  have  they  fallen.  Those 
that  have  been  the  most  rapid  in  their  rise  to 
supremacy  have  been  the  most  rapid  in  disintegra 
tion.  The  trouble  with  America  is  that  its  speed 
revolutions  have  been  so  accelerated  that  at  last  the 
fly-wheel  is  bound  to  burst.  Already  your  pro- 
rata  birth-rate  is  decreasing,  and  would  be  much 
more  rapidly  decreased  were  it  not  for  the  constant 


3o8  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

influx  of  virile  foreigners  of  the  lower  or  breed 
ing  class.  A  century  will  see  America  as  sterile  as 
France." 

Kelvin  nodded  his  head  with  an  emphatic  jerk. 
"  There  is  nothing  new  or  startling  in  your  theories, 
but  in  the  main  they  are  correct,"  he  admitted. 
"  That  is  precisely  why  there  must  be  an  utter 
change  in  our  entire  social  system.  But  this  is 
rather  a  surprising  outbreak  on  your  part,  Doctor. 
I  did  not  know  that  you  had  devoted  so  much 
thought  to  these  things,"  and  Phillip's  lips  curved 
in  a  smile  of  mild  amusement. 

"  Bah !  "  exploded  the  doctor,  snapping  the  fingers 
of  both  hands.  "  I  don't  talk  all  I  think.  I  have 
talked  too  much  now,  but  in  my  desk  I  have  manu 
scripts  so  thick,"  and  with  his  hands  he  indicated  a 
pile  nearly  a  foot  high.  "  It  is  my  great  book  on 
national  neuroticism.  I  came  to  America  to  study 
it.  Mr.  Breed,  who  was  losing  his  physical  and 
mental  equipoise  and  knew  it,  heard  of  me  and  sent 
for  me.  Do  you  suppose  that  I  would  have  taken 
the  position  of  house  physician  to  him  if  I  had  not 
found  clustered  about  him  exactly  the  material  I 
wished  for  my  book  on  alienism  ?  No !  I  have  spent 
a  lifetime  on  neural  deterioration  considered  from 
a  racial  standpoint.  I  spent  a  year  and  a  half  in 
China,  one  in  Japan,  one  in  Russia,  three  in  France, 
two  in  England,  and  five  years  scattered  about  in 


3°9 

other  parts  of  Europe  and  Asia.  Now  I  am  nearly 
four  years  in  America.  I  shall  wait  till  Henry 
Breed  dies.  He  will  die  in  a  year,  or  possibly  two. 
Then  I  shall  spend  two  or  three  years  in  travel 
among  the  uncivilized  peoples  and  go  back  to 
Switzerland  to  publish  my  great  work.  I  shall  die 
myself  soon  after  that.  I,  too,  have  a  fatal  nervous 
disease,  but  it  can  not  kill  me  before  five  years,  and 
I  can  not  live  beyond  seven.  But  my  book  will  live. 
That  will  be  the  valuable  part  of  Doctor  Zelphan. 
Immortality  of  the  soul?  No.  Immortality  of  the 
body?  No.  Immortality  of  the  brain?  Yes. 
For  ever!  " 

"  Possibly,"  agreed  Phillip  dryly.  "  No  doubt, 
Doctor,  your  work  will  be  accepted  as  a  standard. 
No  doubt  it  will  prove  a  vast  revelation  to  the  med 
ical  fraternity  and  to  a  few  students  of  sociology. 
Five  years  afterward  some  other  savant  will  write 
another  four-volume  work  upsetting  all  your 
theories,  and  five  years  after  that  somebody  will 
mention  your  name  to  a  noted  alienist  or  student  of 
neurotics  and  he  will  say:  'Zelphan?  Doctor 
Zelphan?  Um-m-m-m,  the  name  seems  a  trifle  fa 
miliar.  Didn't  he  discover  one  of  those  exploded 
serum  treatments  or  something?  ' 

"  Bah !  "  snapped  the  doctor,  and  his  red  beard, 
now  beginning  to  streak  with  gray,  seemed  to  turn 
redder  from  the  redness  of  his  face  behind  it. 


310  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Bah ! "  he  repeated,  but  this  time  the  exclamation 
was  weaker,  and  Phillip,  as  he  went  down-stairs, 
felt  a  prick  of  compunction  at  having  hit  the  doctor 
such  a  vital  blow. 

Phillip  found  the  library  deserted  and  sat  down 
with  his  back  to  the  door  to  examine  a  volume  on 
numismatics  that  lay  open  upon  the  table.  Soft 
hands  were  suddenly  pressed  over  his  eyes,  and  as 
he  took  them  quietly  away  a  velvet  cheek  nestled 
down  against  his  own.  Knowing  well  whom  he 
should  see,  he  turned  to  find  Lillian  Breed,  be- 
witchingly  handsome  and  gowned  in  a  marvelous 
creation  of  lace,  smiling  into  his  eyes.  She  leaned 
forward  and,  clasping  him  about  the  shoulders, 
pressed  her  lips  warmly  to  his.  At  the  touch  all 
in  him  that  responded  to  her  leaped  up,  and  for  a 
moment  he  crushed  her  in  his  arms  and  returned 
her  kiss  with  something  akin  to  fierceness.  Then 
he  thrust  her  away  from  him  almost  roughly. 

"  You  are  most  indiscreet,"  he  protested,  looking 
at  the  wide-open  door. 

"Why  not?"  she  demanded,  laughing.  "If 
somebody  stepped  in  upon  us  we  should  only  have 
to  make  an  announcement." 

He  winced  involuntarily  at  that,  and  she  saw  it. 
Lillian,  after  years  of  almost  hopeless  training,  had 
at  last  made  her  debut,  and  she  had  dazzled  all 
Washington  by  her  vivacity,  her  wit,  her  beauty  — 


TWO  GENTLEMEN  PROPOSE       311 

charms  that  were  in  no  wise  impaired  by  the  fact 
that  she  was  the  granddaughter  and  only  heir  of 
the  richest  man  the  world  had  ever  known.  She 
could  pick  and  choose  as  she  would,  and,  impelled 
by  the  riot  of  her  always  wayward  senses,  had  cast 
the  eye  of  coquetry  upon  a  score  of  eager  suitors; 
but  here  was  the  only  one  among  them  all,  and 
him  by  no  means  a  suitor,  who  had  the  power  to 
hurt  her  as  she  was  now  hurt.  There  had  been 
that  between  them,  too,  which  makes  a  woman 
fonder  and  a  man  more  careless.  For  a  moment 
she  laid  her  hands  upon  her  breast,  but  she  was  sur 
prised  to  find  that  there  came  no  hot  retort,  usually 
so  ready  upon  her  lips.  Without  effort,  without 
exerting  himself  to  do  so,  Kelvin  had  for  the  time 
being  tamed  the  wild  panther  within  her,  and  her 
only  impulse  she  found  to  be  one  of  conciliation. 
The  quick  instinct  came  within  her  that  she  must 
charm  him  anew  or  she  would  lose  him,  and  that 
her  physical  charm,  though  it  had  not  lost  its 
potency,  would  not  be  enough.  She  had  won  him 
once,  but  by  unwise  methods,  for  in  winning  him 
she  had  lost  him,  and  she  must  win  him  again. 
She  smiled  up  at  him,  her  swift  wit  settling  upon 
the  quick  change  of  topic  that  might  interest  him 
in  her  mental  qualities;  but  prompt  as  she  was 
there  came  an  interruption  in  the  person  of  Doctor 
Zelphan,  who  called  Phillip  peremptorily. 


3i2  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  I  want  to  show  you  something,"  he  said  to 
Phillip  at  the  door.  "  Breed  is  down  in  his  vault 
dressed  in  all  the  gaudy  mummery  of  a  lodge  in 
itiation,  squatted  flat  on  the  floor,  with  money  scat 
tered  all  about  him  and  his  old  Bible  before  him 
on  a  chair,  like  a  Voodoo  idol;  and  he  is  jabbering 
garbled  texts  that  in  his  interpretation  are  worse 
than  blasphemy." 

Lillian,  left  to  herself,  stood  a  moment,  her  breast 
heaving,  and  then  dropped  into  the  chair  that  Kel 
vin  had  vacated  and  grew  deeply  thoughtful.  She 
had  scarcely  moved  when,  at  the  end  of  about 
twenty  minutes,  Herbert  Rensselaer  was  announced. 
Arousing  herself  at  once  she  received  him  with  her 
usual  vivacity.  It  was  he  who  was  the  one  ill  at 
ease,  and  presently  he  broke  into  the  frothy  con 
versation  in  which  they  were  indulging,  with  a 
much  more  serious  note. 

"  It  is  a  pleasure  to  find  you  alone,"  he  observed. 
"  You  are  so  very  popular  that  an  edgewise  word 
with  you  is  a  rare  boon." 

"  This  is  Mr.  Kelvin's  night,"  she  reminded  him. 
"  As  Phillip  Kelvin  we  could  entertain  him  with 
the  usual  crush  that  Mrs.  Rensselaer  has  managed 
to  secure  for  us,  but  as  the  president,  his  dinners 
with  my  grandfather  have  to  be  entirely  private 
and  almost  incognito." 

"  I  don't  think  the  credit  for  the  '  usual  crush  ' 


TWO  GENTLEMEN  PROPOSE'     313 

should  be  given  so  much  to  my  aunt  as  to  your 
self,"  objected  Herbert.  "  You've  made  yourself 
the  sensation  of  Washington." 

"  No,"  Lillian  protested  thoughtfully.  "  I  may 
have  achieved  some  personal  popularity,  but  much 
more,  it  is  humiliating  to  confess,  is  due  to  grand 
father's  position  in  the  world  and  the  capitalized 
force  it  represents.  I  doubt  if  even  money,  how 
ever,  could  have  secured  me  the  recognition  which 
Mrs.  Rensselaer  has  won  for  me.  The  Rensselaer 
name  is  a  powerful  one  socially." 

"  It  is  just  that  about  which  I  was  going  to  speak 
to  you,"  said  Herbert  with  an  awkward  bluntness 
surprising  in  one  of  his  breeding,  until  one  remem 
bered  his  early  cowboy  experiences  with  Kelvin. 
"  I  am  prepared  to  offer  you  the  Rensselaer  name 
for  your  own." 

Lillian  looked  up  at  him  and  smiled. 

"  The  dream  of  your  respected  aunt,"  she 
laughed.  "  Herbert,  you're  a  nice  boy,  but  I'm 
not  in  love  with  you.  Are  you  with  me  ?  " 

He  considered  that  matter  thoughtfully  for  a 
little  time. 

"  Well,  no,"  he  confessed  with  infinite  relief. 

"  I  thought  not,"  she  returned,  still  laughing. 
"  It  is  a  pity  to  disappoint  your  aunty,  but  let's 
do  that  very  thing.  You're  too  good  a  friend  of 
mine  to  spoil." 


314  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  I'm  beginning  to  like  you  immensely,"  con 
fessed  Herbert.  "  Let's  shake  hands  on  it ;"  which 
they  cordially  did,  and  the  Secretary  of  War  gave 
up,  quite  easily,  certain  daring  ambitions  of  his  own 
which  he  had  founded  upon  his  aunt's  urgings,  and 
the  consideration  of  Lillian  Breed's  millions. 

At  almost  the  same  moment  Suinner  Rollins  had 
made  a  quite  different  proposal,  one  with  the  whole 
heart  and  the  whole  love  and  the  whole  honor  of 
a  stalwart  man,  and  Elsie  White,  with  sorrow  that 
it  must  be  so,  searched  in  her  heart  and  found  for 
him  only  friendship,  friendship,  it  is  true,  grown 
strangely  dear  to  her,  but  still  only  friendship ;  and 
the  man  whose  image  blocked  the  way  of  Rollins 
was  thinking  of  her  even  then,  to  the  entire  forget- 
fulness  of  Lillian  Breed. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

LILLIAN  ARRANGES  A  LITTLE  SURPRISE  FOR  PHILLIP 
IN   HER  OWN  BOUDOIR 

IN  a  hundred  cities  there  was  riot  and  discord. 
In  a  thousand  villages  there  was  grave  panic. 
In  a  million  homes  there  was  hunger.  The 
persistent  detention  of  cash  from  circulation,  the 
interference  with  the  logical  evolution  of  business, 
the  sudden  upheaval  of  all  the  social  and  economic 
conditions  which  had  been  developing  for  the  past 
two  centuries,  had  thrown  the  country  into  a  tur 
moil.  Commerce  was  paralyzed  and,  three  months 
after  Senator  Sawyer  had  threatened  a  revolt,  the 
entire  United  States  was  in  a  state  bordering  on 
anarchy.  In  the  cities,  particularly,  there  was  a 
most  dangerous  condition.  The  time  for  public 
mass-meetings  had  gone  by.  Processions  of  the  un 
employed  had  been  clubbed  into  disruption.  Street- 
corner  speakers,  among  whom  Ben  White  had 
become  prominent  for  a  certain  rudely  effective  ora 
tory,  were  suppressed.  Gatherings  in  halls  were 
censored  by  the  police,  the  militia,  or  the  rapidly 
increasing  army  of  regular  soldiers,  and  were 
315 


316  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

broken  up,  sometimes  with  bloodshed,  at  the  least 
sign  of  inflammatory  speech.  The  consequence  was 
natural.  Secret  meetings  were  held  everywhere, 
and  the  emissaries  of  Blagg  gained  converts  by 
the  tens  and  the  hundreds  of  thousands  from  coast 
to  coast.  The  chaos  that  Kelvin  had  deliberately 
inaugurated  to  serve  his  own  ends  was  serving  the 
ends  of  Blagg  equally  well.  Where  men,  welcomed 
for  their  physical  superiority,  were  driven  by  the 
need  of  employment  to  the  now  staggering  pay-roll 
of  the  regular  army,  others  were  driven  to  the 
desperate  oaths  of  Blagg's  organization.  They 
could  not  be  held  patient  —  the  werwolves  of  all  this 
vast  secret  society  —  and  here  and  there,  especially 
in  congested  districts,  scenes  of  the  utmost  violence 
were  enacted.  The  throwing  of  bombs,  with  terrific 
consequence  to  public  safety,  became  common,  so 
common,  indeed,  that  the  life  of  no  public  man  was 
secure;  yet  Kelvin,  attended  by  his  usual  guard, 
went  everywhere.  He  seemed  to  bear  a  charmed 
life,  and  on  the  very  day  he  declared  martial  law 
throughout  the  Union,  when  every  newspaper  was 
against  him  and  when  countless  hordes  were  clam 
oring  for  his  death,  he  went  calmly  to  Forest  Lakes 
to  keep  an  appointment  with  Henry  Breed,  who, 
by  the  doctor's  command,  was  compelled  to  re 
main  at  home.  Five  hundred  grim,  armed  men, 
indifferent  to  the  turmoil  of  the  world  outside,  now 


LILLIAN  ARRANGES  A  SURPRISE      317 

guarded  the  grounds,  and  Kelvin  spoke  of  them  the 
moment  he  met  Breed. 

"  I  want  your  men,"  said  he.  "  I  have  examined 
the  faces  of  them.  They  are  mountaineers  every 
one,  and  men  of  blind  allegiance.  I  need  them  in 
Washington." 

"  No,"  protested  Breed.  "  I  have  been  years  in 
selecting  them,  and  they  must  stay  here  to  guard 
Forest  Lakes  and  me,  and  what  you  know  to  be  in 
the  vault  below." 

"  The  vault  needs  no  guarding,"  replied  Kelvin. 
"  We'll  remove  its  contents  very  shortly  to  the  gov 
ernment  treasury,  anyhow.  The  time  is  ripe,  and 
my  plan  is  to  be  carried  out  at  once." 

"  Our  plan,  you  mean,"  corrected  Breed,  smil 
ing,  whereat  Kelvin's  eyes  contracted  for  a  second. 

It  was  significant  of  the  remarkable  control  that 
Kelvin  had  obtained  over  this  man,  whose  once  in 
domitable  will  had  bent  the  commerce  of  a  nation 
to  his  own  ends,  that  he  protested  no  further  against 
the  appropriation  of  his  picked  guards.  Instead,  he 
turned  eagerly  to  the  immense  portfolio  which  Sam 
brought  in.  Spreading  this  upon  the  library  table, 
Kelvin  opened  it,  disclosing  a  thick  stack  of  the 
large  diagrams  so  characteristic  of  him. 

"  I  have  had  a  small  army  of  statisticians,  under 
the  charge  of  your  invaluable  Jens,  upon  these  for 
the  last  three  months,"  observed  Phillip,  "  and  at 


3i8  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

last  I  have  them  in  very  comprehensive  shape. 
There  are  a  few  matters,  however,  upon  which  I 
want  the  benefit  of  your  experience." 

Breed,  restored  at  once  to  his  shrewd  old  cal 
culating  self,  leafed  carefully  over  the  neat  card 
board  diagrams  which  gave,  in  turn,  comprehensive 
surveys  of  the  entire  extent,  condition,  and  pros 
pects  of  textile  manufacturers,  of  the  steel  industry, 
of  meat  packing,  of  merchandising,  of  every  branch 
of  human  industry  and  commerce,  each  with  all  its 
ramifications.  From  the  experience  of  his  nearly 
fourscore  years  Breed  made  crisp,  brief,  and  preg 
nant  comment  upon  each  industry,  upon  which  oc 
cupation  Doctor  Zelphan  beamed  through  his  thick 
spectacles  with  approval,  for  Breed  was  never  so 
normal  as  at  these  conferences,  when  the  habit  of  his 
business  perspicacity  came  upon  him.  Far  into  the 
night  they  sat  over  this  work,  with  Zelphan  and 
Rensselaer  and,  for  a  time,  Lillian  as  interested 
lookers-on,  and  when  it  came  time  for  Phillip  to 
retire  he  was  very  weary.  Leaving  the  others  still 
in  conversation,  he  was  about  to  make  his  way 
to  his  own  apartments,  but  Lucy  met  him  at  the 
head  of  the  stairs. 

"  They  have  been  making  some  repairs  up  that 
way,  Mr.  Kelvin,"  she  informed  him,  "  and  we'll 
have  to  change  your  rooms  for  this  visit." 

She  led  him  back  into  the  other  wing  of  the 


LILLIAN  ARRANGES  A  SURPRISE     319 

house,  and  he  frowned  as  he  noted  that  the  room 
into  which  he  was  shown  adjoined  the  suite  Lillian 
occupied.  Inside  the  room  he  examined  the  com 
municating  door.  There  was  no  key  in  it,  but, 
stooping  down  to  inspect  the  bolt,  he  could  see  that 
it  was  locked,  and  with  a  nod  of  satisfaction  he 
made  haste  to  get  to  rest.  He  had  scarcely  begun 
to  undress,  however,  when  the  communicating  door 
opened,  and  Lillian,  clad  in  the  same  kimono  in 
which  she  had  before  entered  his  private  apart 
ments  at  the  Esplanade  in  New  York,  came  in, 
laughing  as  if  her  act  were  but  a  childish  prank. 

"  Have  you  no  discretion  whatever?  "  Kelvin  de 
manded  with  some  impatience. 

"  Not  much,"  she  answered  gaily.  "  What  is 
the  use  of  it  in  a  poky,  humdrum  place  like  this, 
where  everybody  is  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind?  Come, 
I  want  to  show  you  something." 

"  I'll  look  at  it  in  the  morning,"  returned  Kelvin. 

"  In  the  morning  won't  do,"  she  insisted.  "  It 
will  be  too  late,  then." 

She  insisted  so  strongly  that  Kelvin  finally 
went  with  her  into  her  own  apartments.  She  went 
to  her  desk  and  brought  a  letter. 

"  See,"  she  said,  "  I  have  found  a  note  written  by 
George  Blagg  to  Ben  White,  the  father  of  your 
precious  friend  Elsie,  while  he  was  still  gardener. 
You  know  grandfather  insisted  on  keeping  him  here 


320  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

long  after  I  discharged  that  enterprising  young 
woman.  There  are  some  important  state  secrets  in 
this  letter.  Blagg  has  been  contracting  for  a  mil 
lion  rifles,  for  one  thing."  As  she  spoke  she  seemed 
to  be  listening  intently.  Phillip  reached  out  his 
hand  for  the  missive.  She  thrust  it  quickly  behind 
her  back  and  looked  up  at  him  with  bantering  eyes. 
"Is  that  the  way  you  express  your  thanks?"  she 
playfully  protested.  "  You  sha'n't  have  it  until  you 
show  yourself  more  grateful  than  that,"  and  she 
pursed  up  her  lips. 

With  something  of  reluctance  Phillip  bent  for 
ward  to  give  her  the  stipulated  kiss,  and  as  he  did 
so  she  suddenly  threw  her  arms  about  his  neck. 
Whatever  remained  in  him  of  response  to  her  wild 
attachment,  in  spite  of  all  his  resolution,  sprang 
instantly  to  momentary  life  and,  overcome  by  her 
wiles,  though  for  the  last  time,  he  clasped  her  in 
a  mad  embrace,  while  the  blood  pounded  at  his 
temples  and  smarted  his  eyes  and  throbbed  in  his 
ears.  At  that  instant  the  hall  door  opened  wide  at 
the  hand  of  Lucy,  and  Henry  Breed  stalked  in, 
followed  by  Doctor  Zelphan  and  Herbert  Rensse- 
laer  and  his  aunt.  Phillip  and  Lillian  instantly 
sprang  apart,  but  it  was  too  late.  The  tableau  had 
been  seen.  The  sudden  visitors  were  hardly  pre 
pared  for  this  revealment,  for  they  were  all  shocked, 
Henry  Breed  was  the  first  to  find  his  voice. 


LILLIAN  ARRANGES  A  SURPRISE      321 

"Lucy  told  us  that  Lillian  wished  to  see  us  in 
her  room,  and  led  the  way,"  he  observed  dryly; 
"  but  Lucy  seems  to  have  been  mistaken." 

"  She  was,"  asserted  Lillian  coolly ;  "  but  since 
you  are  here  I  may  as  well  tell  you  a  bit  of  news, 
grandfather.  You  may  announce  to-morrow  that 
the  long-standing  secret  engagement  between  Phil 
lip  and  myself  is  to  culminate  in  an  immediate  wed 
ding.  We  were  just  discussing  the  date.  I  think 
about  the  first  of  next  month  will  suit  us  best, 
won't  it,  Phillip?"  and  her  hand  sought  his. 

Phillip,  half  confused,  half  angry,  put  as  good 
a  face  upon  the  matter  as  he  could,  and  agreed 
with  every  appearance  of  suavity  that  the  first  was 
the  ideal  date.  Having  announced  their  intention, 
the  surprised  couple  were  able  to  look  their  cap 
tors  in  the  face  with  more  or  less  of  cool  defiance. 
In  Herbert's  eyes  Kelvin  saw  grave  remonstrance. 
Doctor  Zelphan  was  openly  chuckling.  Henry 
Breed  was  smiling  and  rubbing  his  withered  old 
palms  together.  Nothing  could  have  suited  him 
better  than  this  end,  even  though  through  this 
means.  The  shocked  and  horrified  Mrs.  Rensse- 
laer  finally  found  her  motive  power,  and  sailing 
into  the  room  took  Lillian's  arm  under  her  own 
and  marched  away  with  her  to  her  own  apartments, 
casting  looks  of  scorn  and  contempt  upon  the  rude 
and  uncouth  gentlemen  there  present.  Doctor  Zel- 


322  iTHE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

phan,  after  the  ladies  had  gone,  was  the  first  to 
congratulate  Phillip,  shaking  hands  with  him 
heartily. 

"  It  is  a  wonderful  match,"  said  he  with  sardonic 
glee;  "an  ideal  match.  I  could  not  have  picked 
out  any  two  individuals  more  perfectly  mated  to 
produce  the  —  the  entirely  typical  offspring  of  fu 
ture  America." 

Henry  Breed  delightedly  patted  Kelvin  on  the 
shoulder  and  called  him  son,  and  it  never  seemed 
to  cross  his  mind  that  there  had  been  anything  in 
the  circumstances  to  incur  his  disapproval,  if  not 
his  anger.  Rensselaer  lingered  long  enough  to 
protest. 

"  I  say,  old  man,"  said  he,  "  you  might  have  been 
fair  enough  to  give  a  fellow  a  correct  tip  when  I 
asked  you  in  the  first  place.  You've  let  me  make 
an  ass  of  myself.  I  finally  gave  in  to  the  aunt  and 
proposed  to  Miss  Breed  not  long  ago.  I  —  I  wish 
you  happiness." 

Kelvin  looked  enigmatically  into  Rensselaer's 
eyes,  abruptly  laughed  aloud,  and  then,  wheeling, 
turned  into  his  own  room. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

KELVIN  GAINS  AN  EMPIRE  AND  LOSES  THE 
LOVE  OF  A  GIRL 

STALWART  soldiers  surrounded  the  White 
House  grounds  in  lines  two  deep.  From 
the  gates  to  the  main  entrance  the  way  was 
lined  upon  both  sides  with  bronzed  and  weather- 
seamed,  and,  for  the  most  part,  gray-bearded  non 
descripts  who  stood  slouchily  in  their  olive-green 
khaki  and  who  had  nothing  of  the  bearing  of  sol 
diers  in  their  attitude.  They  were  a  strange  lot, 
full  five  hundred  of  them,  and  yet  any  one  disposed 
to  laugh  at  the  awkward  line  had  only  to  look  into 
the  stern  succession  of  mirthless  eyes  to  know  that 
here  was  dogged  fighting  blood ;  and  ridicule  which 
began  at  the  feet  and  swept  up  to  unkempt  beards 
stopped  abruptly  at  those  eyes.  Without,  in  the 
streets  of  Washington,  faint  echo  of  the  conditions 
in  other  and  more  vitally  disturbed  cities,  great 
throngs  of  the  discontented  gathered  and  shifted 
and  circled  and  eddied,  forming  into  groups  that 
fell  away  at  the  approach  of  police  or  soldiery,  only 
to  form  again  into  new  groups;  and  the  com- 

323 


324  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

posite  sound  of  their  muttering  was  a  hoarse  and 
heavy  growl.  They  gathered  near  to  the  White 
House,  but  they  kept  at  a  respectful  distance  from 
the  soldiery.  Already,  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  there  had  been  sufficient  clashes 
to  set  citizen  against  soldier  and  soldier  against 
citizen,  and  recruits  that  but  the  day  before  yester 
day  had  spat  at  a  uniform  and  yesterday  had  been 
driven  by  necessity  into  the  employ  of  the  army, 
to-day  found  themselves  arrayed  against  their 
former  comrades,  and  spat  at  the  plain  citizenry! 
Mutterings  and  grumblings  were  so  universal  as  to 
blend  into  a  guttural  monotone;  and  yet,  after  all, 
there  was  more  anxiety  than  anger  in  the  voice  of 
the  public,  and  the  great  question  was:  .What 
next? 

What  next !  In  what  was  it  all  to  end  ?  Within 
the  White  House  there  were  throngs  of  those  who 
deemed  that  they  had  a  right  to  inquire,  to  argue, 
to  protest,  to  denounce;  for  there  were  signs  on 
every  hand  which  might  well  turn  the  mind  of 
any  man  to  broader  thoughts  than  self.  The 
outer  rooms  forming  the  approach  to  Kelvin's  pri 
vate  office  were  crowded,  and  in  the  one  next  to 
his  visitors  were  so  packed  that  egress,  even  for 
the  president  himself,  would  have  been  impossible. 
That  door  was  kept  locked.  Two  stalwart  officers 
held  it,  and  as  Kelvin,  sitting  in  calm  pomp  with 


THE  LOVE  OF  A  GIRL  325 

his  two  huge,  gaudily  liveried  negroes  behind  him, 
enigmatically  disposed  of  one  agitated  patriot  after 
another,  the  officers  opened  the  door  a  little  way 
and  called  a  name  and  let  in  one  struggling,  per 
spiring  man  or  his  carefully  counted  delegation; 
and  the  shrill  crowd  in  that  outer  room  so  bulged 
that  it  took  the  united  strength  of  the  two  gigantic 
guards  to  close  the  door  again.  Heavy  book-cases 
had  been  placed  against  the  door  opening  into  the 
hall,  and  the  only  other  means  of  egress  and  ingress 
was  by  a  private  door  leading  to  a  small  room 
which,  in  turn,  opened  toward  the  carriage  entrance. 
Just  now,  Kelvin  was  entertaining  a  delegation 
picked  by  himself.  They  were  his  cabinet  officers, 
and  they  were  pale  and  nervous  to  a  man.  Added 
to  them  were  two  strangely  out-of-place  groups,  the 
one  consisting  of  Henry  and  Lillian  Breed,  Jens 
Nelson,  and  Doctor  Zelphan,  and  the  other  of  Rol 
lins  and  Elsie  White.  All  of  these  had  been  ad 
mitted  by  the  private  door.  The  arrival  of  the 
latter  two  groups  was  disconcerting  to  Phillip 
at  the  moment,  although,  after  a  slight  period  of 
cogitation,  he  had  ordered  them  both  admitted. 
Rollins  and  Elsie  White  came  last,  and  the  moment 
they  had  entered  Phillip  ordered  the  door  to  be  re- 
locked.  He  had  been  upon  the  point  of  making 
an  important  announcement  to  his  waiting  and 
apparently  prepared  cabinet,  and  now,  his  small  au- 


326  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

dience  once  more  quiet,  he  raised  his  hand  im 
pressively;  but  before  he  could  speak  Elsie  White 
hurried  forward  to  him. 

"Look  in  your  desk,  quickly,  but  carefully!" 
she  cried.  "  An  infernal  machine  is  concealed 
there,  timed  to  explode  at  twelve !  " 

She  was  deathly  pale.  There  were  dark  rings 
under  her  eyes.  Evidently  she  had  passed  a  sleep 
less  night.  Phillip,  obeying  his  habit  of  mentally 
ignoring  sudden  and  agitated  thoughts  that  he 
might  consider  them  in  forced  calmness,  looked 
down  upon  her  compassionately,  and  the  moment 
for  which  Elsie  had  waited  all  these  years  had  at 
last  almost  arrived;  to-day  she  stood  nearer  to  him 
in  affection  than  any  other  living  creature.  There 
had  come  upon  him  a  new  gravity,  as  well  there 
might,  in  view  of  the  fates  that  might  be  impend 
ing,  and  he  had  suddenly  felt  a  need  that  had 
never  before  appealed  to  him.  It  had  begun  to 
dawn  upon  him  that  Elsie  was  that  need ;  Elsie, 
whose  heart  he  knew  had  been  faithful  to  him 
throughout  all  these  years.  Love  had  come  to  him 
at  last.  Well,  there  was  still  time.  He  had 
fought  and  he  had  won.  The  moment  of  his 
triumph  was  at  hand,  and  with  the  fruits  of  that 
triumph  he  would  crown  Love.  All  this  in  a  flash; 
then  came  the  consideration  of  Elsie's  news  and  a 
recourse  to  that  theatricalism  which,  beginning  with 


THE  LOVE  OF  A  GIRL  327 

a  deliberate  intention  to  be  impressive,  had  grown 
into  more  or  less  of  a  habit  with  him.  He  glanced 
at  the  clock.  It  was  then  barely  ten.  Jens  Nelson 
had  started  hastily  toward  the  door,  but  now  he 
returned  to  the  side  of  Doctor  Zelphan. 

"  According  to  that  we  have  plenty  of  time," 
Phillip  said  calmly. 

"Look!"  Elsie  frantically  insisted.  "The  ma 
chine  might  be  faulty.  It  was  timed  for  twelve 
because  it  is  known  that  you  never  leave  until  one, 
but  there  is  danger  this  very  second!  Every  act 
of  your  daily  routine  has  been  studied,  and  in  a 
half  dozen  places  these  things  lie  in  wait  for  you. 
Here  is  a  list  of  them,"  and  she  gave  him  a  paper. 
"  Moreover,  to-day  at  noon  there  will  be  flashed 
from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other,  by  tele 
graph  and  by  wireless,  George  Blagg's  command  to 
begin  fighting.  He  has  an  immense  secret  army 
ready,  awaiting  this  word.  Only  a  small  propor 
tion  of  the  men  are  armed,  but  they  intend  to  take 
their  weapons  from  the  soldiers.  His  entire  forces 
are  to  rise  at  once  and  capture  the  states  simul 
taneously,  from  coast  to  coast,  by  the  suddenness 
of  their  attack." 

Kelvin  looked  up  from  the  paper  she  had  given 
him. 

"  How  do  you  know  these  things?  "  he  demanded. 

.What  little  color  there  had  been  in  Elsie's  face 


328  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

left  it  suddenly.  Even  her  lips  were  as  white  as 
paper.  "  I  can  not  tell  you,"  she  murmured  faintly. 

Kelvin  nodded  his  head.  He  surmised  well 
through  what  source  her  information  had  come, 
though  he  did  not  know  how  she  had  secured  it. 
This  vast  conspiracy  had  Ben  White  as  one  of  its 
weak  arms. 

"But  hurry,  Phillip!  Hurry!"  pleaded  Elsie, 
using  his  familiar  name  unconsciously.  "If  you 
find  there  what  I  have  told  you,  you  may  know 
that  all  the  rest  is  true." 

"  It  is  probably  true  enough,"  replied  Phillip 
calmly.  "  Herbert,  I  had  wished  you  to  be  here 
when  I  made  my  announcement,  but  you  know  what 
it  is,  as  do  the  others  of  my  cabinet,  and  what  your 
share  in  it  is  to  be.  I  shall  excuse  you  for  the  time 
being.  Wire  at  once  to  every  military  force  under 
your  command  to  be  in  readiness  for  this  uprising." 

One  of  the  attendants  opened  the  private  door  and 
let  Herbert  out.  Kelvin  stooped  and  opened  every 
drawer  of  his  desk  on  either  side,  but  found  noth 
ing.  He  turned  to  Elsie  with  a  slight  smile,  but 
she  was  on  her  knees  now  in  front  of  the  desk, 
with  her  ear  applied  to  it. 

"  Search  further,"  she  insisted.  "  I  hear  some 
thing  ticking." 

Again  Kelvin  looked  through  the  drawers  and 
found  nothing  unusual. 


THE  LOVE  OF  A  GIRL  329 

"  Pull  out  the  bottom  one  on  this  side,  and  look 
underneath  it,"  she  directed,  with  now  almost  fran 
tic  insistence. 

Kelvin  did  so.  Under  the  right-hand  bottom 
drawer,  in  the  six  inches  of  enclosed  space  left 
between  it  and  the  floor,  he  found  a  wooden  box, 
four  inches  high,  a  foot  wide,  and  two  feet  long. 
This  he  pulled  out  carefully  and  set  upon  his  desk. 
Applying  his  ear  to  it  he  detected  a  faint  ticking. 
It  was  locked  in  three  places  in  front  and  in  two 
places  on  the  rear  between  the  hinges.  He  handed 
it  to  one  of  the  negroes. 

"  Have  this  removed  to  some  safe  place  at  once," 
he  ordered. 

"  'Deed  no !  Not  me !  "  protested  the  quaking 
voice  of  Peavy  as  he  very,  very  gently  slid  the  box 
back  on  the  desk  and  then  sprang  away  from  it. 
"  Ah's  suttainly  boun'  an'  'termined  to  be  planted 
in  mah  grave  whole,  Ah  is !  " 

Sam,  though  a  curious  ashen  gray  with  fear, 
picked  up  the  box,  but  one  of  the  big  officers,  a 
white  man,  took  it  quietly  from  his  hands,  and 
went  out  the  door  with  it. 

Kelvin  glanced  after  him  mechanically  and  turned 
slowly  to  his  cabinet.  "  Gentlemen,"  he  began, 
"  the  United  States  is  in  a  condition  of  absolute 
anarchy." 

"  Wait  a  minute,"  suddenly  quavered  the  shrill 


330  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

voice  of  Henry  Breed.  "  Wait  a  half  hour,  Phillip. 
I  wouldn't  believe  Jens,  and  I  didn't  bring  that  robe 
along." 

Jens  looked  at  him  with  a  curious  smile.  Breed 
had  not  been  invited  to  this  gathering.  Jens  had 
brought  him  perforce. 

Phillip  held  up  his  hand  for  silence.  "  The  coun 
try  is  in  a  state  of  absolute  anarchy,"  he  repeated. 
"  It  has  been  working  to  that  end  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  more  and  more  rapidly  each  year.  Re 
cent  developments  have  hastened  the  crisis.  It  is 
necessary  that  a  radical  change  in  our  entire  social 
system  be  inaugurated  at  once  to  save  us  from  riot, 
bloodshed  and  starvation."  His  eyes  sought  a  type 
written  sheet  lying  on  the  desk  before  him.  "  Now, 
therefore,  I,  the  chief  executive  of  the  nation,  issue 
the  following  proclamation:  That  all  public  util 
ities  and  private  enterprises  are  hereby  confiscated 
by  the  government  for  the  benefit  of  the  govern 
ment  and  the  people;  that  all  present  owners  and 
managers  of  these  enterprises  shall  remain  in  their 
present  employments  and  conduct  these  enterprises 
for  the  government;  that  all  factories,  mills,  stores, 
and  establishments  of  commerce  of  whatsoever  na 
ture  which  have  ceased  operation  be  immediately 
reopened,  and  all  seekers  of  employment  be 
given  work  to  the  full  capacity  of  these  plants. 
The  government  will  insure  the  payment  of 


THE  LOVE  OF  A  GIRL  331 

wages,  will  become  responsible  for  all  liabilities, 
and  become  the  holder  of  all  assets.  All  holdings 
of  cash  and  of  stocks,  bonds  or  other  securities,  ex 
cept  those  reposing  in  banks,  hereby  become  the 
property  of  the  government.  All  banks,  whether 
national  or  private,  are  hereby  appointed  and  taken 
over  as  branches  of  the  governmental  treasury,  and 
no  money  shall  be  paid  out  without  official  order. 
All  factories,  mills,  and  enterprises  of  whatsoever 
nature,  having  started  work  at  once,  shall  issue, 
until  further  adjustment,  time-checks  at  the  pre 
vious  rates  of  employment,  which  time-checks  shall 
be  taken  in  payment  by  all  merchandise  concerns, 
the  same  as  legal  tender,  until  the  government  shall 
have  time  for  adjustment.  Every  able-bodied  man 
in  the  United  States  between  the  ages  of  twenty 
and  sixty  is  hereby  ordered  to  return  to  his  previous 
employment,  or,  if  previously  without  employment, 
to  apply  at  the  nearest  center  of  industry.  Any 
able-bodied  person,  as  described,  found  idle  within 
one  week  after  this  proclamation,  without  valid  ex 
cuse,  shall  be  arrested  and  imprisoned.  Any  citi 
zen  found  armed  within  twenty-four  hours  after 
this  proclamation  shall  be  shot  for  treason  without 
trial. 

"  To  all  the  foregoing  I  have  hereunto  set  my 
hand  and  seal. 

"  PHILLIP  KELVIN  —  EMPEROR." 


332  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

A  sigh  of  relief  and  immeasurably  more  burst 
from  the  lips  of  his  cabinet  officers,  men  whom  he 
had  gathered  around  him  for  just  this  purpose,  and 
who  knew  his  full  intention.  The  die  was  cast,  the 
tide  was  in  motion,  either  to  its  ebb  or  its  flow. 
They  were  to  be  the  vast  gainers  or  the  incalculable 
losers;  either  grand  dukes,  or  outcasts  fleeing  for 
their  lives. 

A  sharp  wail,  as  of  an  animal  in  sudden  torture, 
burst  from  the  lips  of  Henry  Breed.  He  started 
forward,  shaking  and  trembling,  the  veins  on  his 
leathern  old  face  starting  out  like  whipcords.  He 
raised  both  his  clenched  fists  and  opened  his  mouth 
to  speak,  but  no  words  came. 

Speech  was  supplied  on  the  instant,  however,  by 
Sumner  Rollins.  "  By  God,  no !  "  he  cried.  "  I 
knew  that  you  contemplated  some  folly,  Kelvin,  but 
never  that  you  had  in  your  crazed  mind  a  crime 
so  great  as  this,  or  I  should  either  have  impeached 
you  as  a  traitor  or  had  you  imprisoned  as  a  lunatic. 
Hear  me,  you  men !  Let  no  word  of  this  proclama 
tion  get  beyond  this  room  as  you  value  your  lives!  " 

"  Arrest  that  man !  "  shouted  Kelvin. 

"Arrest  me  if  you  dare!"  cried  Rollins.  "I 
am  going  from  this  room  a  free  man,  and  I  will 
show  you  that  patriotism  and  the  love  of  liberty 
in  the  United  States  are  neither  dead  nor  asleep. 
In  every  village  and  upon  every  farm  there  still 


THE  LOVE  OF  A  GIRL  333 

dwells  the  immortal  spirit  of  our  forefathers,  who 
fought  and  died  to  make  the  constitution  a  living, 
breathing  thing;  who  fought  and  died  to  gain 
liberty,  absolute  and  unimpeachable,  for  every  hu 
man  being  who  set  foot  upon  this  soil ;  who  fought 
and  died  to  defend  that  liberty,  and  the  union  which 
insures  it,  against  foreign  invaders  and  against  in 
ternal  dissension.  Kelvin,  I  am  going  out  of  here 
to  face  you  with  an  army  which  can  defeat  any 
politically  made  army  in  the  world;  an  army  fight 
ing  for  the  sacred  and  undefeatable  causes  of  home 
and  country  and  freedom.  I  shall  issue  such  a  call 
that  every  unvitiated  descendant  of  every  true 
American  will  answer;  a  call  so  loud  and  so  deep 
and  so  potent  that  even  those  old  heroes  of  Lexing 
ton  and  Concord  and  Bunker  Hill,  of  Bull  Run  and 
Shiloh  and  Gettysburg,  will  rise  from  their  very 
graves  and  swing  into  line  to  sweep  this  colossal 
folly  back  into  the  fourteenth  century  where  it  be 
longs,  and  to  make  a  byword  and  a  laughing-stock 
of  the  name  of  Phillip  Kelvin  —  Emperor!" 

The  guards  who  had  advanced  toward  Rollins 
had  hesitated  upon  his  outburst,  and  in  that  mo 
ment  of  his  righteous  fury,  standing  stern  and  stal 
wart  with  his  eyes  flashing,  he  was  commanding 
enough  to  have  halted  any  underling.  Now,  how 
ever,  the  guards  looked  to  Kelvin,  and  he  struck 
his  knuckles  impatiently  upon  the  table.  Elsie 


334  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

White,  upon  Kelvin's  plunge  into  his  proclamation, 
had  stepped  back  to  the  door,  where  she  now 
stood  directly  back  of  Rollins.  As  the  latter 
spoke  she  had  put  her  hands  behind  her  and  quietly 
turned  the  key.  Now  she  plucked  Rollins  by  the 
sleeve. 

"Hurry!     Go!"  she  whispered. 

She  pulled  open  the  door  and  thrust  Rollins 
through  it  before  he  had  more  than  half  compre 
hended  her  intention,  then  she  slammed  it  shut, 
turned  the  key  in  the  lock,  and  slipped  the  key  into 
the  neck  of  her  gown,  just  as  the  guards  and  Sam 
threw  themselves  upon  the  door. 

"  Miss  White,  I  will  give  you  thirty  seconds  in 
which  to  produce  that  key,"  came  the  cold  voice  of 
Kelvin. 

She  looked  back  at  him  steadily,  but  made  no 
move.  Kelvin  drew  his  watch  from  his  pocket.  A 
tense  silence  settled  in  the  room.  The  thirty 
seconds  as  they  ticked  themselves  off  upon  Kelvin's 
watch  seemed  an  eternity.  Finally  he  slipped  his 
timepiece  back  into  his  pocket. 

"  Will  you  give  it  up?  "  he  demanded.  Now  his 
voice  was  trembling. 

She  shook  her  head. 

"  Sam,  take  it." 

The  blood  that  had  left  Elsie's  face  suddenly 
surged  up  crimson  as  Sam  approached  her,  but,  ex- 


THE  LOVE  OF  A  GIRL  335 

cept  to  clasp  her  hands  over  her  breast  she  did 
not  move,  nor  did  she  take  her  eyes  from  Kelvin. 
He  himself  turned  half  nauseated.  He  had  made 
the  threat  of  Sam,  hoping  that  her  horror  of  the 
negro  would  produce  the  effect  he  sought,  but  since 
it  had  not,  the  word  of  an  emperor  was  out.  She 
shuddered  as  Sam  put  his  enormous  hands  upon 
her,  but  she  defended  the  key,  as  best  she  could 
with  her  puny  strength.  There  was  a  brief  strug 
gle  in  which  the  waist  of  her  gown  was  torn  al 
most  its  full  length,  baring  her  snow-white  bosom; 
and  then,  with  a  grin  upon  his  ugly  face  and  a 
blaze  in  his  eyes  that  was  not  good  to  see,  Sam 
plunged  his  enormous  black  hand  after  the  key. 
The  appalled  watchers  were  startled  by  a  shrill 
laugh  of  derision  from  Lillian  Breed.  Sam  sprang 
from  Elsie  at  once  and  inserted  the  key  in  the 
lock,  though  Rollins,  by  that  time,  was  in  his  auto 
mobile  and  speeding  away  toward  the  Maryland  line 
and  concealment,  unpursued. 

Elsie  staggered  back  a  pace  against  the  wall  for 
support,  still  with  those  large  eyes  fixed  upon  Kel 
vin.  Across  the  wridth  of  the  room  he  gazed  into 
them  and  saw  die  there  every  last  lingering  trace, 
from  every  corner  of  her  heart,  of  the  love  and  af 
fection  that  had  for  many  years  been  a  part  of  its 
fiber,  and  the  wrenching  out  of  that  affection  was 
more  than  her  frail  strength  could  bear.  She  sank 


336  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

fainting  to  the  floor.  Two  or  three  ran  to  revive 
her.  but  Lillian  was  not  among  them. 

In  the  midst  of  that  confusion  Henry  Breed 
found  his  voice.  "  You  sha'n't  have  it!  "  he  cried. 
"  You  sha'n't  have  my  money.  I'll  resist  to  the 
last  ditch.  You  can't  get  into  the  vault.  I'll  hire 
a  million  assassins  to  kill  you.  //  /  was  to  be 
emperor!  /  was  to  be  emperor!  "  The  old  man's 
hands  were  twitching  convulsively  at  his  bald  head 
as  if  he  would  snatch  out  the  hair  that  was  not 
there.  His  face  was  scarlet,  and  there  were  flecks 
of  foam  upon  his  lips. 

His  granddaughter  put  her  hand  upon  his  shoul 
der.  "  Never  mind,  grandfather,"  she  said  con 
temptuously;  "  remember  that  it's  all  in  the  family." 

She  glided  up  to  the  desk  before  Phillip.  "  My 
Emperor,  I  salute  you,"  she  said,  smiling  up  at  him, 
and  from  his  desk  she  picked  up  the  dagger.  "  Un 
crowned  and  unrobed  as  yet,  still  I  salute  you,  for 
you  are  sceptered,  at  least.  Here  it  is,  your  talis 
man  that  twice  threatened  your  life.  Do  you  re 
member  how  once,  holding  its  point  up  like  this,  you 
declared  that  in  this  sign  you  would  conquer?  It 
represented  then,  as  it  does  now,  the  tips  of  ten 
thousand  glittering  sword-points,  of  a  million  glit 
tering  bayonets.  I  believed  in  you  then,  as  I  do 
now,  and,  declared  that  I,  too,  would  reign.  In  this 


THE  LOVE  OE  A  GIRL  337 

sign  we  conquer!  "  and  with  an  hysterical  laugh  she 
raised  the  dagger  aloft. 

Kelvin  looked  down  upon  her  in  sudden  fury. 
He  had  not  forgiven  her  for  enticing  him  to  the  for- 
getfulness  of  his  great  principle,  that  to  acquire  suc 
cess  he  must  have  no  entanglements  with  women; 
he  had  not  forgiven  her  his  entrapment  into  a  mar 
riage  avowal;  he  had  not  forgiven  her  the  death  of 
that  love  which  he  had  seen  die  out  of  Elsie  White's 
eyes;  he  had  not  forgiven  her  that  heartless  laugh; 
he  could  not  forgive  her  this  bold  and  hasty  claim 
before  his  scarcely  established  court. 

"  For  some  time  to  come,"  said  he  with  quiet  sup 
pression,  "  I  expect  to  reign  alone." 

She  looked  up  at  him  and  read  in  his  eyes  the  cool 
first  use  he  meant  to  make  of  his  absolutism,  which 
was  to  repudiate  her.  She  read  it  there,  implacable 
and  irrevocable.  "  Then,  your  Majesty,"  she  said 
to  him  mockingly,  "  I  have  only  to  ask  you  that  you 
guarantee  me  safe  exit  from  the  palace." 

His  face  flushed  at  this  first  trace  of  ridicule  to 
be  heaped  upon  his  pretensions  to  royalty,  but  his 
voice  was  grave  and  even  enough  as  lie  strove  to  es 
tablish  dignity.  "  You  have  my  word  for  that," 
said  he. 

"  Then,"  she  cried  as  she  sprang  back  from  his 
desk  toward  the  door  that  was  still  open,  "  I  shall 


338  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

keep  this  little  souvenir  until  I  have  a  chance  to 
present  it  to  you  again,"  and  she  thrust  the  dagger 
into  her  belt.  "  Do  you  know  what  I  am  going  to 
do  ?  I  am  about  to  turn  revolutionist ;  I  am  about 
to  become  the  Jeanne  d'Arc  of  America;  I  am  about 
to  join  George  Blagg's  army  and  finance  it  and  lead 
it !  "  And  with  a  shrill  laugh  she  swept  out  of  the 
door. 

There  was  a  moment  of  paralyzed  silence,  and 
then  through  the  corridor  they  heard  her  voice,  loud 
and  clear  and  wild,  singing  The  Marseillaise.  She 
swept  out  through  the  entrance  and  down  between 
the  ranks  of  those  bronzed  mountaineer  soldiers. 
Marching  with  martial  tread,  she  sang  the  Song  of 
Blood  clear  through  their  ranks;  and  the  people  in 
the  streets  caught  up  that  exalting  chorus,  spreading 
it  with  incredible  swiftness  to  the  confines  of  the 
city.  The  news  of  its  singing  flashed  along  wires 
and  across  pulsating,  electrified  spaces.  In  every 
city  in  the  United  States  that  mighty,  rousing  song 
was  caught  up,  and  the  land  vibrated  with  one  ac 
cord  to  its  rhythm  and  grew  wild  with  its  frenzy. 
In  one  day  America,  that  had  in  its  infancy  dis 
dained  the  rule  of  royalty,  that  had  sworn  in  every 
atom  of  its  heart  and  in  every  fiber  of  its  body  and 
in  every  drop  of  its  blood  that  no  monarch  should 
ever  sit  in  authority  upon  one  foot  of  its  soil,  had 
an  emperor  —  and  its  national  song  had  become 
The  Marseillaise! 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

WHEREIN    BELLS    RING    AND    WHISTLES    BLOW    AND 
EMPEROR  KELVIN  STARTS  ON  A  JOURNEY 

AT  midnight,  Phillip  the  First  sat  in  the  ob 
servation  tower  he  had  caused  to  be  built 
upon  the  roof  of  the  White  House,  watch 
ing,  waiting.  He  remained  so  perfectly  motionless 
and  for  so  long  a  time,  in  the  moonlight  which  swept 
into  the  dimness  of  the  small,  square  room,  that 
one  might  have  thought  him  asleep,  except  for  the 
glistening  of  the  high  light  upon  his  eyes,  which 
were  upturned  fixedly  to  one  bright  star  that  hung 
above  the  dome  of  the  capitol.  Even  the  sudden 
harsh  clatter  of  a  bell  within  the  apartment  did  not 
disturb  him  from  his  statue-like  rigidity.  From  a 
bench  at  the  rear,  however,  a  tall,  broad-shouldered 
figure,  which  might  have  been  a  gigantic  shadow 
from  the  even  blackness  of  the  clothes  and  the  face 
and  hands,  rose  and  picked  up  the  telephone  from 
a  little  table  in  the  corner.  The  shadowy  figure 
turned  to  Kelvin  quietly. 

"  It's  General  Rensselaer,  suh,"  he  said.     "  He 
wants  to  see  yo'  all  on  very  'pawtant  business." 

339 


340  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Tell  them  to  let  him  come  up,"  directed  Kelvin 
without  turning  his  head. 

There  seemed  a  subtle  fascination  in  that  star  for 
him.  It  was  the  one  which,  in  smiling  jest,  he  had 
once  named  as  his  "  star  of  destiny,"  and  though  his 
reason  denied  him  any  superstition,  still  his  fancy 
grappled  firmly  upon  it,  and  night  after  night,  when 
the  skies  were  clear,  he  gazed  on  that  star  and 
hung  upon  it  all  his  strategies  and  all  his  planning 
dreams,  planning  of  such  scope  as  to  be  all  but 
monstrous,  day  visions  so  vast  that  they  verged 
upon  absurdity,  projects  so  illimitable  as  to  be  al 
most  impious ! 

But  why  not?  He  had  accomplished  in  succes 
sion  all  his  spacious  aims  until  now.  From  ocean 
to  ocean,  for  seven  days,  there  had  existed  a 
state  of  tense,  taut  strain.  What  violence,  what 
carnage,  what  hideous  saturnalia  of  bloodshed 
might  break  forth  at  any  moment  no  one  knew ;  but 
in  the  meantime  he,  Phillip  Kelvin,  who  but  a  few 
brief  years  before  had  possessed  not  a  dollar  and 
scarce  a  friend,  was  still  Emperor  of  America. 
Emperor!  Phillip  the  First!  What  vast  conquests 
might  yet  lie  before  him  ! 

His  preparations  for  handling  this  present  situa 
tion  were  excellently  laid.  In  or  near  every  center 
of  population  were  massed  well-drilled  soldiers,  able 


KELVIN  STARTS  ON  A  JOURNEY      341 

to  combat  and  to  quell  any  insurrection.  There 
might  be  a  revolt  more  or  less  systematized,  but  it 
could  do  very  little  against  the  systematic  resistance 
that  Kelvin  had  devised,  lie  had  planned  wisely 
for  a  reorganization  of  social  conditions,  that  he 
knew.  He  had  issued  proclamations  that,  if  car 
ried  out,  would  render  this  chaos  into  order,  and 
that  most  briefly,  he  was  sure.  Then,  the  country 
once  more  reorganized  upon  a  self  sustaining  basis, 
where  every  man  had  an  equal  chance  for  suste 
nance  and  moderate  accumulation,  the  larger  dreams 
might  materialize,  the  real  victories  might  begin. 

The  conquest  and  annexation  of  Canada  and 
Mexico  would  come  next,  and  co-extensive  with  this 
the  building  up  of  the  largest  navy  in  the  world. 
Europe,  that  vast  tissue  of  states  bound  by  a  flimsy 
figment  called  "  the  balance  of  power,"  could  be  dis 
integrated  by  a  single  shot;  thrown  into  a  turmoil 
of  cross  purposes  that  would  render  its  individual 
masses  easy  prey.  With  each  new  victory  would 
come  more  strength,  and  his  imperial  progress  might 
sweep  on  and  on  until  the  entire  world,  from  pole  to 
pole  and  from  Occident  to  Orient,  might  be  bound 
together  under  his  resistless  sway ;  linked  in  a  broth 
erhood  of  universal  peace  and  prosperity  and  equal 
ity,  with  himself  as  the  benign  dictator!  Oh,  star 
of  destiny,  what  say  you  to  that  ?  The  star,  a  keen 


342  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

silver  point,  beamed  down  but  coldly  upon  him. 
There  seemed  to  come  a  sudden  chill  in  the  air, 
and  he  shivered  slightly. 

Crisply  up  the  steps  came  Herbert  Rensselaer. 

"  How  ghastly  it  is  up  here !  "  said  he.  "  Why 
don't  you  have  some  light?  " 

"  That  is  a  peculiar  question  for  the  Commander 
in  Chief  of  the  Imperial  army  to  ask,"  replied  Kel 
vin  with  a  smile. 

Rensselaer  himself  smiled. 

"  It  would  make  your  whereabouts  rather  con 
spicuous,"  he  admitted ;  "  but  under  the  circum 
stances  it  might  be  well  to  turn  on  the  lights  and 
leave  them  burning.  We  shall  be  away  from  here 
in  a  few  minutes." 

"  Forest  Lakes?  "  asked  Kelvin  with  quick  inter 
est.  "  At  last !  We  should  have  made  that  expedi 
tion  a  week  ago." 

"  My  organization  was  not  perfect  enough," 
Rensselaer  objected.  "  But  we  are  quite  prepared 
now.  At  every  half  mile  between  here  and  Breed's, 
by  the  time  we  are  moving,  there  will  be  stationed  a 
detachment  large  enough  for  protection.  Each  de 
tachment,  as  we  come  up  to  it,  will  close  in  and  fol 
low  behind  us.  The  main  body  is  timed  to  arrive 
at  the  gate  of  Forest  Lakes  exactly  at  the  time  we 
do,  and  the  following  divisions  will  arrive  at  the 
time  we  are  most  likely  to  need  reinforcements.  I 


KELVIN  STARTS  ON  A  JOURNEY     343 

wish  that  it  were  not  necessary  to  take  you  there. 
You  should  be  here  where  you  can  direct  your  cam 
paign." 

"  I  don't  admire  the  trip  myself,"  confessed  Kel 
vin,  "  but  outside  of  Henry  Breed  and  his  grand 
daughter,  and  possibly  Doctor  Zelphan,  I  am  the  only 
person  in  the  world  who  knows  the  exact  location 
and  the  combinations  of  his  vault  and  its  billion  and 
a  half  of  cash."  He  paused  for  a  moment  to  con 
template  in  some  inner  shame,  how  and  why  and 
when  Lillian  had  given  him  the  secret  of  those  com 
binations.  "  The  greatest  fear  I  have  is  that  Breed 
may  have  changed  the  combination  of  his  locks." 

"  I  doubt  if  he  was  able  to  do  so,"  returned  Rens- 
selaer.  "  He  left  here,  upon  the  day  of  your  pro 
clamation,  apparently  in  a  state  of  almost  complete 
paralysis,  attended  by  Doctor  Zelphan,  my  aunt, 
Jens  Nelson  and  Elsie  White." 

Phillip  was  silent  a  moment. 

"By  Elsie  White?"  he  repeated.  "It  is  queer 
that  she  went  along." 

Herbert  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  Breed  always  liked  her,  and  when  Lillian  left 
with  the  threat  to  join  George  Blagg,  Breed  turned 
to  Elsie  like  a  child  and  insisted  that  she  should  not 
leave  him." 

Kelvin  winced,  and  a  great  longing  came  over 
him.  He  too  would  have  liked  to  have  turned  to 


344  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Elsie  White  '*'  like  a  child,"  but  he  was  for  ever  too 
late.  His  time  for  that  was  past.  He  shook  off 
the  feeling  of  momentary  weakness  that  had  come 
over  him,  but  Rensselaer  presently  revived  it.  He, 
too,  was  looking  out  upon  the  silent  city,  and  the 
same  chill  in  the  air  that  had  seemed  to  affect  Kel 
vin,  came  to  him  so  that  he  drew  his  military  cloak 
closer  about  him. 

"  Everything  seems  dead,"  he  suddenly  ex 
claimed.  "  It  is  getting  on  my  nerves,  this  thing  of 
waiting  and  waiting.  Seven  days  ago,  at  exactly 
twelve  o'clock,  noon,  George  Blagg's  army  of  a  mil 
lion  was  suddenly  to  pour  out  of  the  ground,  from 
New  York  to  San  Francisco  and  from  Duluth  to 
New  Orleans,  a  wild,  ferocious  horde,  that,  frothing 
at  the  mouth,  was  to  sweep  all  law  and  all  order  be 
fore  it,  to  grind  it  into  dust,  and  to  leave  it  but  a  red 
memory.  We  were  prepared  at  that  hour.  Every 
regiment  of  our  army  stood  at  arms  and  ready. 
For  a  hundred  and  eighty  hours  the  army  and  you 
and  I  have  been  waiting,  waiting,  waiting,  all  at  that 
high  tension,  and  nothing  has  happened.  Noth 
ing!" 

He  had  scarcely  finished  speaking  when  a  bell  in 
some  steeple  near  them  tolled  out  a  long,  strident 
note;  then  another;  then  it  began  a  rapid  clanging! 
A  distant  factory  whistle  joined  it.  Both  men 
sprang  to  their  feet,  their  hands  gripping  the 


KELVIN  STARTS  ON  A  JOURNEY      345 

window-sill,  and  leaned  far  out.  Another  bell,  of  a 
sharper  tone,  and  one  of  a  deeper,  took  up  the 
clamor.  Another  whistle,  two,  a  dozen,  broke  in 
with  their  deafening  noise.  It  seemed  that  of  a 
sudden  every  bell  and  every  whistle  in  the  city  had 
been  given  frantic  life.  From  the  streets  there 
arose,  first,  separate,  individual  shouts,  then  scat 
tered  cheers,  then,  as  they  of  the  under  kennel 
awoke  and  rushed  upon  the  pavement,  a  perfect 
babble  of  shrill  cries.  There  was  something  terrific 
in  those  voices  of  the  streets.  There  was  in  them  a 
note  of  savage  triumph,  of  lust  let  free,  of  all  the 
hatred  possible  to  the  human  breast,  intensified  by 
demoniac  fury  long  pent  up,  multiplied  a  hundred 
thousand  fold  by  numbers.  Into  the  pandemonium 
of  sounds  there  was  suddenly  injected  a  new  and 
more  sinister  one :  the  sharp  crack  of  rifles  and  then 
measured  volley  after  volley!  Shrieks  and  groans 
and  shrill  screams  of  anguish  arose  into  the  mid 
night  air,  and  battened  about  the  little  observatory 
tower  with  startling  distinctness ;  and  in  each  human 
cry,  whether  of  anger  or  agony,  there  was  a  damn 
ing  accusation  of  Kelvin,  though  one  that  fell  on 
deaf  ears  so  far  as  pity  or  remorse  was  concerned. 
Kelvin's  philanthropy  was  a  cold  and  an  ethical  one, 
and  in  it  there  was  no  capacity  for  human  sympathy 
with  suffering. 

"  Well/'  said  he  with  a  sigh ;  "  it  has  come." 


346  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Rensselaer's  eyes  were  glistening. 

"  I  regret  to  leave  it,  even  for  a  day,"  he  declared. 
"  This  is  the  moment  I  have  longed  for  all  my  life; 
but  Pellman  will  be  able  to  manage  things  here.  I 
could  not  be  everywhere,  and  I  have  good  generals 
at  every  station,  I  know.  Think  Kelvin,  what  this 
means !  If  Blagg's  threats  are  right,  and  this  seems 
to  prove  them,  at  this  identical  moment  this  same 
hell  has  broken  loose  in  every  city  in  the  United 
States." 

The  telephone  bell  behind  them  rang  sharply. 
Sam  was  already  on  his  feet,  standing  poised,  a 
great  human  beast,  all  the  savagery  in  him  strangely 
stirring.  He  sprang  to  answer  the  telephone. 

"  All  right,  suh,"  said  he,  and  turned  to  Kelvin. 
"  Everything  is  ready.  They  ah  waiting  foh  you." 

"  Tell  them  we  will  be  right  down,"  directed 
Kelvin. 

As  they  turned  to  go  a  roseate  glow  mounted  the 
sky  behind  the  dome  of  the  capitol.  They  paused 
a  moment  and  watched  it  turn  to  carmine. 

"  Fire !  "  announced  Kelvin  grimly.  "  I  had 
counted  this  as  a  part  of  the  cost,  but  I  hope  the  de 
struction  may  not  be  great." 

Their  eyes  rested  on  a  strange  scene  when  they 
came  down  to  the  other  door.  From  the  porte- 
cochere  to  the  carriage  gate  were  solid  lines  of 
soldiers  upon  each  side,  four  deep.  Outside  in 


KELVIN  STARTS  ON  A  JOURNEY      347 

the  street,  the  entire  block  was  thronged  with  men 
in  khaki  standing  about  a  hollow  square  of  fourteen 
automobiles,  while  at  the  ends  of  the  block,  upon  the 
cross  streets,  there  surged  masses  of  people,  frantic 
and  howling,  not  yet  formed  into  the  terrible  unity 
of  purpose  that  was  to  come.  Kelvin  stepped  into 
a  closed  automobile  with  Rensselaer  and  Sam  and 
two  of  his  most  dependable  guards,  and  with 
Peavy,  ashen  gray  and  protesting,  up  by  the  chauf 
feur.  Kelvin  had  no  sooner  stepped  in  than  Peavy 
jumped  from  his  place  and  ran  back  under  the 
porte-cochere. 

"  Indeed  Ah  cain'  go,  Mistah  Kelvin,"  Peavy  de 
clared,  listening  with  terror  to  the  vengeful  voice  of 
the  mob.  "  Ah  ain'  well." 

Sam  immediately  jumped  out  after  him. 

"  Git  back  in  yo'  place !  "  he  commanded. 

"  Now  yo'  all  go  'way  from  me,  Sam !  "  cried 
Peavy.  "  Ah  ain'  got  no  time  to  projec'  roun'  wid 
yo' !  Ah  ain'  well,  Ah  tells  you !  " 

"  Sit  back  on  yo'  place !  "  repeated  Sam. 

"  I  suah  cain'  do  it,"  protested  Peavy.  "  Mali 
God,  man,  Ah  ain'  well,  Ah  tells  yo' !  Ah'm  scaihed 
sick!" 

The  sharp  voice  of  Kelvin  came  from  the  auto 
mobile. 

"  Leave  him  there,  Sam.  We  don't  want  him. 
He  will  be  worse  than  useless  to  us." 


348  .THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  All  right,  suh,  Ah'll  leave  him  heah,  then.  Jes' 
one  minute." 

There  was  the  wail  as  of  a  lost  soul  from  Peavy, 
as  Sam  suddenly  sprang  upon  him,  and,  gripping  his 
powerful  fingers  around  Peavy 's  neck,  bore  him  to 
the  floor.  He  knelt  over  him  for  just  a  moment 
while  Peavy's  legs  struggled  convulsively.  Then  he 
gave  a  sudden  jerking  pressure  of  all  his  weight 
to  those  gigantic  hands,  arose  and  jumped  up 
by  the  chauffeur;  and  Peavy  lay  still  where  Sam 
had  left  him. 

Kelvin  uttered  no  word  of  protest  to  Sam,  but 
he  turned  to  Herbert  with  a  return  of  that  chill  feel 
ing  which  had  twice  before  oppressed  him  this  night. 

"  A  bad  omen,"  he  said. 

Herbert  laughed  lightly. 

"  There  will  be  a  thousand  bad  omens  before  we 
are  through  with  this,"  he  predicted ;  "  but  I  think 
that  even  Peavy  would  have  been  safe  in  this  flying 
wedge  of  ours." 

The  automobile  rolled  out  into  the  street  and  took 
its  place  in  the  center  of  the  hollow  square.  Both 
before  and  behind  it  were  six  automobiles,  three 
abreast,  and  one  was  upon  each  side.  Each  of 
these  was  a  seven  passenger  car,  and  in  the  tonneau 
of  each  rested,  upon  a  tripod,  its  sweep  above  the 
head  of  the  chauffeur,  a  cylinder  of  shining  brass; 
behind  each  cylinder  stood  a  stalwart  soldier  in 


KELVIN  STARTS  ON  A  JOURNEY      349 

khaki,  and  two  others  sat  upon  the  seat ;  each  soldier 
was  further  accoutered  with  rifles  and  small  arms, 
and  thus,  surrounded  by  fourteen  Gattling  guns  and 
spare  men  to  man  them,  the  fifteenth  automobile, 
which  contained  Kelvin,  took  command  of  the  ex 
pedition.  There  was  a  shrill  whistle  from  Rensse- 
laer,  the  soldiers  fell  away  from  before  the  machines 
like  chaff,  and  the  strange  battery  sprang  forward. 
Upon  the  cross  street  at  the  end  of  the  block  the 
people  quickly  gave  \vay,  but  out  from  an  intersect 
ing  avenue  two  blocks  beyond,  a  fanatical  mob, 
shouting  and  cursing,  turned  and  bore  straight  to 
ward  them.  Guns  could  be  seen  on  shoulders,  and 
torches,  already  the  sign  and  signal  of  lawlessness, 
as  they  had  been  in  a  thousand  uprisings  since  the 
centuries  began,  were  flaunted.  From  the  forward 
automobile  there  came  a  sharp  crackling,  a  succes 
sion  of  staccato  snaps  like  the  ripping  of  shingles 
from  a  roof.  The  running  mob  stopped,  it  fell 
back,  it  scattered  like  chaff,  and  in  an  instant  more 
the  autos,  keeping  evenly  abreast,  bumped  and 
jerked  over  a  pavement  strewn  with  sickeningly 
soft  impediments.  Wherever  a  throng  in  the  dis 
tance  seemed  about  to  bar  the  way,  one  of  the  Gat- 
tlings  snapped  out  a  rolling  word  of  warning.  A 
few  went  down,  but  when  the  automobiles  reached 
the  spot  there  was  not  a  soul  to  offer  them  hindrance 
nor  to  reach  with  an  accidental  shot  the  sacred  body 


350  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

of  the  Emperor.  So,  through  the  city  and  out  into 
the  country  they  swept,  to  roads  where  they  could 
go  but  two  abreast  and  sometimes  but  single  file; 
but  always  Kelvin  was  in  the  center,  and  never  was 
there  any  interference.  A  half  mile  northeast  of 
the  city  the  headlights  flared  on  a  detachment  in 
unmistakable  khaki  on  both  sides  of  the  road,  and 
these  saluted  as  the  imperial  escort  swept  by,  and 
cheered,  and  closing  in  behind  marched  at  double 
quick. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

LILLIAN   BREED  IS   IN    HER   NATURAL  ELEMENT 
AT   LAST. 

IN  a  thousand  gory  spots  the  beasts  of  hate  were 
loosed  at  once,  and  the  places  in  which  they 
chose  to  glut  their  rage  were  the  cities;  the 
cities,  where  vice  had  congested,  where  crime  had 
sought  and  found  its  fellows,  where  poverty  had 
festered,  where  a  deadly  miasmatic  blight  had  settled 
upon  all  life,  all  thought,  all  social  intercourse. 
The  ringing  of  that  first  deep-toned  knell  in  Wash 
ington  had  been  simultaneous  with  the  clang  of  the 
same  grim  death  watch  from  east  to  west  and  from 
north  to  south.  George  Blagg's  own  hand  had 
pressed  the  wireless  key  which  had  sent  the  message 
flashing  in  every  direction  across  startled  space. 
Eager  fanatics  had  received  it,  and  wherever  it  was 
transmitted  there  came  almost  the  instantaneous 
pealing  of  bells  from  church  and  fire  and  school 
towers,  and  the  answering  shriek  of  factory 
whistles ;  then  the  voices  of  the  frantic  horde  and  the 
volleys  of  guns  and  the  shrieks  of  the  wounded  and 
the  reddening  of  night  skies.  In  every  city  large 

351 


352  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

enough  to  have  fostered  these  unnatural  districts, 
out  from  tenements  \vhere  the  sustenance  of  life 
was  a  matter  of  crusts  and  luxury  was  spelled  by  a 
pail  of  beer,  swarmed  an  ill-clad,  unkempt,  under 
fed  horde  to  avenge  the  follies  of  society  upon  itself. 
The  horror  of  it  was  that  they  did  not  attack  the 
soldiery  direct,  as  Blagg  had  planned,  but  the  better 
nourished  citizens ;  for  Blagg's  original  secret  organ 
ization,  bound  together  with  some  idea  of  order, 
with  some  sense  of  philanthropic  motive,  with  some 
plan  of  warfare  against  the  "  Imperial  Army,"  was 
now  augmented  by  a  wild,  disordered  herd  of  the 
criminally  inclined,  who,  seeing  that  law  and  order 
were  swept  away,  turned  to  mad  license. 

Out  into  the  residence  districts  they  swept  in 
packs,  like  starving  wolves,  their  faces  contorted  to 
devilish  caricatures  of  the  Supreme  Likeness,  and 
sickening  scenes  of  horror  ensued.  Wherever  a 
proud  home  reared  itself,  a  monument  to  the  in 
dustry  or  the  wit  or  the  greed  of  some  man,  there 
were  murder  and  pillage  and  rapine,  all  ending  in 
the  torch;  and  when  the  mob  swept  on  it  left  behind 
it  but  a  leaping  blaze  to  light  its  way.  The  au 
thorities  were  worse  than  powerless.  As  fast  'as 
a  fresh  center  of  disturbance  was  reported  and  a 
detachment  sent  there  to  quell  it,  the  horror  broke 
out  anew  in  some  other,  distant  field ;  and  with 
sickening  regularity,  police  or  soldiers  arrived  only 


LILLIAN  IN  HER  ELEMENT        353 

in  time  to  find  the  mob  dispersed  to  regather  at  some 
other  gluttonous  feast,  and  a  hopeless  fire  in  prog 
ress.  An  all  seeing  eye,  sweeping  that  night  across 
the  North  American  continent,  would  have  found 
the  land  reddened  by  these  many  pyres,  which 
lighted  a  redness  still  more  terrible,  for  not  only 
men  and  women  were  put  to  death  in  this  maniacal 
orgie  of  reprisal,  but  little  children  were  slaugh 
tered  as  they  ran  shrieking  from  warm  beds, 
and  with  oaths  tossed  into  the  fire  by  blackened 
faced  monsters  after  the  work  of  destruction  had 
been  completed.  No  night  in  all  the  history  of  the 
world  had  paralleled  this;  no  blood  lust  was  ever 
so  hideously  satiated ;  no  carnage  was  ever  so  wide 
spread,  for  this  one  smeared  a  continent  with  blood. 
While  this  raving  debauchery  took  place  over  the 
length  of  the  land,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
and  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf,  three  separate  con 
courses  crept,  under  cover  of  the  night,  one  from 
the  north  and  one  from  the  south  and  one  from  the 
east,  convergent  upon  Forest  Lakes,  where  the  prize 
coveted  of  each  army,  Breed's  billion  and  a  half 
dollars  in  solid  cash,  lay  hidden  beneath  the  library 
cellar.  The  first  of  these  concourses,  the  one  from 
the  north,  had  crept  silently  forward  all  night  long. 
Many  of  its  members  had  marched  now  for  five  suc 
cessive  nights,  sleeping  in  the  barns  of  friendly 
farmers  by  day,  and  arising  the  next  night  with  one 


354  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

or  more  recruits.  They  had  avoided  the  villages, 
taking  the  least  detours  around  them  that  they 
might;  but  ahead  of  them,  to  each  village,  they  had 
sent  one  of  their  number,  and  when  he  rejoined 
them  on  the  other  side  there  marched  behind  him  a 
goodly  company.  These  bore  no  trace  of  uniform, 
but  each  man  carried  over  his  shoulder  his  rifle  or 
his  shot-gun.  Some  had  belts  for  ammunition  and 
others  carried  their  pockets  full.  They  were  grim, 
stern  men,  sane  human  beings  of  the  country  dis 
tricts,  who  had  not  been  caught  in  the  maelstrom 
of  the  social  upheaval,  men  who  had  happily  dwelt 
out  of  its  fevered  circles,  men  whose  eyes  and  whose 
minds  were  clear  to  see  the  right  and  the  wrong  of 
things,  and  to  know  the  great  Justice  that  broods 
over  all.  They  came  on  steadily  and  firmly,  and 
their  ranks  constantly  grew.  As  each  detachment 
joined  them  a  stern  voice  called:  "Halt!  Who 
comes  ?  "  and  then  into  a  listening  ear  was  whispered 
by  each  new  adherent  of  the  ranks,  "  Liberty  and 
the  Republic!" 

Nearer,  upon  the  road  from  the  east,  a  far 
different  army,  like  a  giant,  nervous  snake,  came 
jerking  along  tlte  dark  road  at  much  greater 
speed.  It  was  composed  of  undersized  men,  for 
the  most  part,  ranging  from  bloated- faced  and  blear- 
eyed  youths  to  bloated- faced  and  blear-eyed  middle 


LILLIAN  IN  HER  ELEMENT       355 

age,  and  there  were  bedraggled  women,  far  more 
fiendish  of  visage  than  the  men.  They  danced, 
many  of  them,  as  they  marched,  and  always  they 
sang;  sang  the  blood-maddening  song  of  The  Mar 
seillaise,  sang  it  in  cracked  and  jangling  tones, 
with  throats  that  were  hoarse  from  shrieking  and 
voices  that  were  husky  from  dissipation ;  and  never, 
even  in  the  days  when  the  tricolor  received  its  bap 
tism  of  blood,  was  The  Marseillaise  a  more  terrible 
song  than  on  this  night.  Many  of  the  singers  car 
ried  torches,  made  from  whatever  inflammable  sub 
stances  they  could  find  upon  the  way,  and  replenished 
as  often  as  burned  out.  They  made  no  detours,  but 
swept  past  farm-houses  and  through  villages  in 
brazen  insolence,  and  their  passing  was  like  a 
scourge,  especially  in  the  villages,  where  they  broke 
open  bakeries  and  meat  shops,  groceries  and  saloons, 
gorging  themselves  with  what  they  wanted  and 
wasting  what  they  did  not,  offsetting  expostulation 
with  blows  and  resistance  with  murder,  and  passing 
on  with  ribald  uproar  that  could  have  been  equaled 
only  by  the  din  of  the  damned.  Men  in  their  beds 
heard  and  paled,  and  women  and  children  whim 
pered  in  fear ;  and  woe  betide  any  who  came  in  their 
path ;  for  by  and  by  they  maimed  and  killed  in  mere 
wanton  sport.  They  were  drunk  with  the  carnage 
that  was  to  come,  drunk  with  the  license  that  was 


356  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

to  be  theirs,  drunk  with  the  loosing  of  all  their 
most  evil  passions;  and  they  that  rode  at  their  head 
were  drunker  than  any  of  them. 

In  a  carriage  drawn  by  two  gray  horses  taken  by 
force  from  a  bewildered  farmer,  there  rode  tall, 
gaunt  George  Blagg,  and  by  his  side  sat  Lillian 
Breed,  her  gown,  once  a  rich  creation  of  red  silk, 
soiled  and  tattered,  the  jaunty  hat  she  had  once 
worn  replaced  by  a  gay  colored  silk  kerchief  that  she 
had  knotted  about  her  black  hair;  under  her  eyes 
were  dark  rings,  but  the  eyes  themselves  gleamed 
with  an  excitement  that  was  demoniacal,  and  her 
cheeks  were  aflame  with  an  unnatural  fire.  Beau 
tiful  even  in  her  dishevelment,  she  was  the  incarna 
tion  of  the  riotous  spirit  that  had  maddened  all  their 
following,  and  she  it  was,  who,  when  any  period  of 
silence  fell  for  a  moment  upon  the  twisting  serpent 
of  humanity  behind  her,  raised  her  voice  in  the  wild 
song  of  The  Marseillaise.  Each  time,  as  that  hymn 
of  destruction  was  caught  up  by  those  directly  about 
her  and  swept  back  along  the  trailing  concourse  to 
its  unseen  wake,  she  would  laugh  aloud  in  hysterical 
glee,  and,  sinking  once  more  beside  her  consort, 
would  clasp  him  in  a  wild  embrace  and  shower  mad 
kisses  upon  him,  kisses  which  he  returned  with  her 
own  tigerish  gusto;  and  those  that  danced  ahead 
of  the  carriage  and  around  it  set  up  shouts  of 
approval. 


LILLIAN  IN  HER  ELEMENT        357 

Nearer  still,  upon  the  road  from  the  south,  but 
waiting,  there  bivouacked  a  grim  company  in  khaki, 
men  who  rested  upon  a  hillside  with  their  guns  close 
by  them  in  orderly  formation,  ready  on  the  word 
to  spring  to  their  feet  at  attention.  In  the  road, 
silent  sentries  patrolled.  Farther  back,  a  half  mile, 
a  smaller  detachment  bivouacked;  at  a  half  mile 
farther,  still  another,  and  so  clear  to  Washington. 
These,  too,  were  men  of  the  city  type,  but  they  were 
the  more  stalwart  ones,  the  ones  who  had  best  sur 
vived  bad  air  and  ill  nourishment  and  ill  condition. 
They  were  the  sturdier  class  of  the  unemployed 
workmen. 

And  so  these  three  sorts  of  humanity  centered 
toward  Forest  Lakes;  the  virile  workmen  of  the 
cities;  the  rat-like  undermen;  the  grim  and  stern 
stalwarts  of  the  farms  and  villages  —  they  in  whom 
still  lived  the  spirit  of  the  constitution,  of  the  revolu 
tion,  of  the  union! 


CHAPTER  XXX 

DOCTOR   ZELPHAN   DECIDES   TO  DIE   CROUCHING  AND 
ROLLINS   TAKES   A    KISS   IN   THE   DARK 

THROUGH  the  dark  woods  at  Forest  Lakes 
there  came  hurrying,  from  the  northern 
boundary  of  the  estate,  an  active  figure 
which,  avoiding  the  center  of  the  drives  where  the 
starlight  might  reveal  him,  kept  in  the  shadows  of 
the  trees ;  yet,  when  it  became  necessary  to  traverse 
open  spaces,  he  crossed  them  boldly,  making  his  way 
steadily  toward  the  big  gray  stone  house.  Occa 
sionally,  in  the  denser  shadows,  he  stopped  to  listen. 
On  the  clear  night  air  his  quick  ears  seemed  to  catch 
a  sound  like  a  distant  murmur  of  human  voices,  and 
yet,  when  he  paused,  either  the  vagaries  of  the  wind 
swept  that  distant  sound  away,  or  his  strained 
imagination  had  deceived  him. 

He  had  wondered  somewhat  that  no  guard  had 
stopped  him.  He  knew  that  Kelvin,  before  he  had 
proclaimed  himself  Emperor,  had  taken  away 
with  him  Breed's  five  hundred  picked  mountaineers, 
but  he  knew  also  that  a  dozen  or  so  of  them  had 
been  left,  flint-like  men  who  would  much  rather 

358 


A  KISS  IN  THE  DARK  359 

shoot  first  and  inquire  afterward  in  these  troubled 
times.  He  was  congratulating  himself  upon  his 
good  fortune  in  escaping  these  men,  when,  as  he 
rounded  the  corner  of  the  house,  two  of  them,  at  the 
front  door  in  the  shadow  of  the  porch,  stepped  for 
ward  with  leveled  guns. 

"  Throw  up  your  hands !  Come  in  the  light !  " 
commanded  the  one  nearest  him,  and  flashed  the 
glow  of  an  electric  pocket  lantern  in  his  direction. 

The  new-comer  did  as  he  was  bidden  and  walked 
directly  toward  the  bull's-eye. 

"  Stop ! "  ordered  the  spokesman.  He  held  the 
glow  steadily  upon  the  new-comer's  face.  "  Looks 
a  little  like  the  description,"  said  he  to  the  other 
guard. 

"  Uh-huh,"  drawled  the  other  reluctantly. 

"  Are  you  Sumner  Rollins  ?  "  asked  the  spokes 
man. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Rollins  relieved,  and  began  to 
lower  his  hands. 

"  Hold  up  your  hands !     Wait  a  minute !  " 

Rollins  instantly  raised  his  hands  again,  feeling 
rather  ridiculous,  while  the  guard  stepped  to  the 
door  and  rang  the  bell.  He  had  no  more  than  rung 
it  when  the  door  opened,  and  Elsie  White  stood  re 
vealed  in  the  flood  of  light. 

"  Come  in,  Mr.  Rollins,"  she  cheerily  invited. 
"  I  have  been  waiting  for  you  these  three  nights." 


360  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Waiting  for  me !  "  he  exclaimed,  as  he  strode 
up  and  took  both  her  hands  in  his  own.  "  I  don't 
see  how  that  could  be.  I  have  been  trying  for  a 
week  to  get  word  to  you,  but  could  find  no  way.  I 
knew  that  with  the  telegraph  control  in  the  hands 
of  Blagg  no  message  was  safe.  How  did  you  find 
out  that  I  was  coming?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  replied  Elsie,  dropping  her  eyes 
as  she  gently  disengaged  her  hands  and  closed  the 
door.  "  I  just  seemed  to  know  it.  I  felt  so  sure 
of  it  that  I  gave  all  the  outside  men  orders  to  watch 
for  you.  You  see,"  and  now  she  looked  up  at  him 
frankly,  "  I  knew  that  you  were  aware  of  our  dan- 
ger." 

The  light  of  joy  leaped  into  his  eyes.  Once  more 
he  caught  at  her  hands,  and  she  blushed  as  she  drew 
them  behind  her. 

"  They  are  waiting  for  you,"  she  said.  "  I  think 
that  the  danger  is  growing  very  near.  There  are 
armed  soldiers  just  about  a  mile  south  of  the  gate.'* 

"  I  thought  I  heard  a  murmur  of  voices  as  I  came 
through  the  woods  from  the  north,"  said  Rollins, 
puzzled  again,  "  but  the  sound  seemed  to  come  from 
the  east,  and  it  seemed  to  me,  too,  that  an  orderly 
night  march  of  disciplined  men  would  not  betray 
itself  in  that  way." 

Elsie  had  opened  the  door  of  the  library,  and  the 
tableau  that  met  Rollins'  gaze  was  so  startling  that 


A  KISS  IN  THE  DARK  361 

he  stopped  transfixed.  Behind  the  long  library 
table  at  the  far  end  of  the  room,  in  a  high-backed 
chair  sat  old  Henry  Breed,  the  richly  jeweled  crown 
upon  his  jerkily  nodding  head,  the  robe  of  ermine 
and  carmine  upon  his  emaciated  form,  the  diamond 
tipped  scepter  in  his  hand.  At  one  end  of  the  table 
sat  Jens  Nelson,  looking  particularly  boyish  with  his 
straw-colored  hair  and  his  straw-colored  eyebrows 
and  his  round  pink  face,  and  at  the  other  end  Doctor 
Zelphan,  peering  through  his  thick  spectacles  at  Rol 
lins  and  grinning  through  his  bushy  red  beard,  while 
Mrs.  Rensselaer,  as  composed  as  if  at  the  reception 
of  a  social  rival,  sat  aloof  in  a  corner,  thinking  her 
own  thoughts. 

"  Welcome  to  our  court ! "  cackled  Breed. 
"  Welcome  to  our  court !  What  plenipotentiary  have 
we  here?  "  and  his  head  nodded  so  violently  that  the 
heavy  crown  jerked  off  and  fell  upon  the  table. 

Doctor  Zelphan  calmly  caught  it  as  it  was  about  to 
roll  to  the  floor,  carefully  pushed  out  a  dent  that 
had  been  made  in  the  soft  gold,  and  restored  the 
crown  to  Breed,  who,  after  many  bobbing  at 
tempts,  placed  it  again  upon  his  head. 

"  I  shall  examine  the  envoy's  credentials  and  pre 
sent  him  to  your  majesty  in  due  time  and  form," 
sonorously  announced  Zelphan,  with  an  evident 
enjoyment  of  the  mockery  that  Rollins,  in 
his  shocked  abhorrence,  could  not  understand. 


362  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  Quite  right,"  agreed  Breed.  "  Quite  right. 
Let  all  things  be  done  in  due  form,"  and,  apparently 
resolved  not  to  interfere  with  proper  observances, 
Breed  drew  his  old,  well-worn  Bible  to  him,  opened 
it,  and,  though  his  eyes  were  too  dim  to  see  the 
words,  bent  over  the  pages  and  began  to  mumble 
to  himself  garbled  quotations,  of  which  vengeance 
was  the  chief  burden. 

"  I  am  the  Prime  Minister,"  Zelphan  stated  with 
burlesque  gravity,  arising  and  shaking  hands  with 
Rollins.  "  Our  friend  Jens,  here,  is  the  Lord  High 
Chamberlain.  Mrs.  Rensselaer  is  the  First  Lady  in 
Waiting.  If  you  behave  yourself,  Rollins,  we'll 
make  you  a  Duke  or  an  Earl  or  something.  Pick 
out  your  title.  Anything  you  please." 

Rollins  smiled  thinly,  but  he  could  not  take  his 
eyes  nor  his  mind  from  the  appalling  wreck  of 
Henry  Breed,  the  richest  man  the  world  had  ever 
known,  or  perhaps  ever  would  know,  the  man  who, 
starting  without  a  dollar,  had,  in  the  course  of  an 
ordinary  lifetime,  compassed  half  the  wealth  of  a 
nation  to  his  own  use,  and  through  that  half  con 
trolled  the  balance  of  it.  And  he  was  come  to  this 
end ! 

Nelson  roused  Rollins  to  immediate  business. 

"  What  is  the  news  ?  "  he  asked  abruptly. 

Rollins  turned  to  him  with  relief. 


A  KISS  IN  THE  DARK  363 

"  I  have  a  force  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
good,  solid  men  who  will  be  here  inside  of  half  an 
hour,  to  protect  the  vaults.  I  am  quite  sure  that 
an  attack  will  be  made  upon  them  to-night.  I  have 
been  collecting  my  forces  for  a  week  against  this 
moment,  and  watching  Kelvin  through  the  spy  of 
whom  you  told  me.  When  they  got  the  Gattlings 
into  the  garage  to-day,  I  knew  the  time  was  growing 
very  short.  We  made  a  forced  march  to-night, 
making  a  straight  cut  to  get  here.  Had  we  gone  a 
trifle  out  of  our  road  we  could  have  had  three  more 
detachments  with  us,  but  we  would  have  lost  two 
or  three  hours.  We  might  not  have  been  here  until 
daylight." 

"  They  have  Gattlings,  you  say  ?  "  asked  Nelson, 
troubled. 

"  Fourteen  of  them,  from  the  government  ar 
senal,  mounted  in  automobiles.  If  my  men  get  here 
in  time  I  want  to  ambush  the  expedition  from  be 
hind  the  wall,  and  have  my  sharpshooters  puncture 
their  tires  and  pick  off  their  gunners.  If  I  can 
deploy  half  a  mile  of  my  squirrel  hunters  along  the 
road,  the  automobiles  can  not  go  so  fast  but  that 
we  can  stop  every  one  of  them,  and  disarm  them. 
Kelvin  is  to  be  among  them.  If  we  can  capture  him 
the  whole  problem  is  solved." 

"  But  they  have  Gattlings,"  protested  Nelson. 


364  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

"  We  have  ambush  and  strategy,"  insisted  Rollins 
confidently.  "If  only  my  forces  can  arrive  in 
time!" 

"  You  have  done  wonders,"  said  Nelson  admir 
ingly.  "How  have  you  managed  it?  I  thought 
we  were  helpless." 

Rollins  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  Kelvin  had  one  enemy  he  could  not  throttle,  and 
that  was  the  American  press,  which,  after  all,  is  the 
staunch  foundation  upon  which  our  liberty  has  been 
founded  and  upheld.  Upon  the  instant  of  his  proc 
lamation  Kelvin  had  a  censor  ready  to  take  osten 
sible  charge  of  every  newspaper  office  in  the  United 
States.  He  might  as  well  have  put  infants  there. 
In  some  cases  the  censors  were  intimidated,  in 
others  they  were  hoodwinked,  in  others  they  were 
bound  and  gagged,  and  in  some  places  killed.  The 
papers,  the  majority  of  them,  came  out  with  pre 
cisely  the  things  any  good  American  would  expect 
them  to  say  under  the  circumstances.  The  soldiers 
were  kept  busy  confiscating  papers  and  closing  up 
newspaper  plants,  but  as  fast  as  they  closed  one, 
the  paper  was  issued  from  some  other  source,  on 
borrowed  presses  and  in  borrowed  offices.  Several 
papers  that  ostensibly  obeyed  Kelvin's  proclamation 
and  issued  censored  journals  thoroughly  acceptable 
to  him,  were  at  the  same  time  printing  the  incen 
diary  organs  of  their  rivals  for  them,  and  aiding  in 


A  KISS  IN  THE  DARK  365 

their  distribution.  The  eastern  newspapers,  on 
the  very  first  day,  issued  my  call  to  arms,  and, 
though  the  telegraph  was  closed  to  us,  within  two 
days  the  appeal  was  being  printed  in  Chicago  and 
St.  Louis,  spreading  farther  west  every  day  since 
the  proclamation.  In  every  village  and  every  coun 
try  settlement  men  are  arming;  the  sort  of  men  who 
always  respond  to  the  call  of  patriotism,  the  sort  of 
men  who  know  when  their  country  and  their  homes 
are  in  danger,  and  who  are  willing  to  die  to  defend 
them.  Nelson,  you  can't  whip  men  like  that!  So 
long  as  they  exist  in  this  country  it  will  be,  without 
jingoism,  but  in  glorious  fact,  the  home  of  the 
brave  and  the  land  of  the  free! " 

Zelphan,  whose  whole  bearing  until  now  had  been 
like  the  flippancy  of  an  overgrown,  mischievous 
school-boy,  smiled  and  nodded  his  head  approvingly. 

"It  is  the  existence  of  such  men  as  these  fol 
lowers  of  yours,  and  yourself,  Rollins,  that  recon 
ciles  me  to  America,"  he  admitted.  "  I  have 
damned  you  as  a  whole  more  than  once,  as  being  a 
race  of  people  who  are  plunging  themselves  into 
nerve  bankruptcy;  but  after  all,  there  is  something 
in  the  fundamentals  of  this  country  different  from 
any  other  nation ;  there  is  a  healthiness  in  the  body 
politic  which,  if  nature  be  given  a  chance,  can  throw 
off  all  its  cancers.  America  needs  just  some  such 
eruption  as  this  to  clear  her  blood  and  let  the  healthy 


366  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

molecules  like  you  and  Nelson  here  get  to  work. 
I'm  very  fond  of  Nelson  since  I  have  come  to  know 
him,"  and  the  doctor  dropped  a  broad  red  hand 
upon  Nelson's  shoulder,  whereat  Nelson's  face  as 
sumed  a  stony  stare  in  which  there  was  no  apparent 
gleam  of  intelligence.  "  Nelson  was  fortunate 
enough  to  earn  the  scholarship  grade  entitling  him 
to  be  supported  by  Breed  through  his  college  career, 
and  in  the  end  passed  such  examinations  that  he 
was  given  immediate  employment  in  Mr.  Breed's 
own  service.  By  all  this  Nelson  conceived  himself 
bound  in  simple  loyalty!  Strange,  isn't  it?" 

"  I  know,"  nodded  Rollins  with  appreciation,  and 
with  a  kindly  glance  at  Jens.  "  Breed  gave  him 
to  me  for  my  secretary  and  he  was  a  spy  on  all  my 
acts." 

"  He  was  more  than  that,"  went  on  the  doctor, 
laughing,  and  still  regarding  Nelson  with  a  curious 
smile.  "  He  was  passed  on  to  Kelvin  when  Phillip 
the  First  became  president,  and  when  Jens  found 
that  Kelvin  actually  meant  to  declare  himself  em 
peror,  to  the  exclusion  of  Breed  and  everybody  else, 
he  set  up  a  system  of  spies  of  his  own,  and  helped 
Blagg  place  the  bombs  that  were  intended  to  blow: 
Kelvin  out  of  his  throne!  All  this,  mind  you,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  he  does  not  quite  approve  of 
everything  that  has  been  done  by  our  royal  friend 


A  KISS  IN  THE  DARK  367 

back  here,  and  that  he  does  not  believe  any  one  man 
should  control  so  much  cash." 

"Cash!"  suddenly  broke  in  the  shrill  voice  of 
Breed,  and  the  crown  bumped  from  his  glistening 
bald  head  upon  the  table  in  front  of  him  and  rolled 
to  the  floor.  "Cash!"  and  his  wrinkled  old  face 
weazened  into  an  expression  of  desperate  intentness. 
"  The  greatest  force  in  all  the  world !  The  power 
that  can  totter  thrones  and  disrupt  governments; 
that  can  cause  wars  and  support  them  and  end  them ; 
that  can  build  cities  and  devastate  them!  Cash! 
The  life  blood  of  commerce!  The  great  social 
dynamo!  The  golden  lever  of  Archimedes! 
Cash !  "  His  voice  rose  in  a  shrill  crescendo,  but 
before  its  quaverings  had  ceased  there  came  another 
sound  much  more  startling  —  the  unmistakable, 
never-to-be- forgotten  Marseillaise ! 

It  was  not  musical,  that  song,  with  its  untuned 
voices  and  its  melody  all  awry,  but  there  was  an  ex- 
ulant  insistence  upon  the  measured  rhythm  that 
arrested  instant  attention.  There  seemed,  as  it 
approached,  as  gusts  of  wind  made  it  more  sharply 
audible,  as  it  mounted  in  volume,  a  demoniacal  fury 
in  it. 

Every  blind,  including  the  heavy  curtains  behind 
the  glass  at  the  doors,  had  been  drawn.  Now  Nel 
son  suddenly  snapped  a  button  that  threw  the  library 


368  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

in  darkness,  and  going  to  one  of  the  windows  that 
gave  upon  the  front  driveway,  opened  a  blind. 
The  red  flare  of  torches  could  be  seen  between  the 
trees.  There  came  a  loud  cheer,  impregnated  with 
the  same  fury  as  the  song,  and  then  the  blows  of 
rails  and  logs  upon  the  heavy  iron  gates,  a  fusillade 
of  shots  from  the  rifles  of  the  guards,  screams  of 
agony  and  answering  shots. 

"  Too  late !  "  groaned  Rollins.  "  It  is  not  Kel 
vin's  army  but  Blagg's.  God  help  us !  " 

A  piercing  scream,  as  if  it  might  have  been  that 
of  a  cat  in  mortal  anguish,  came  from  the  end  of 
the  room  where  Henry  Breed  sat  alone  nodding  his 
head  and  mumbling  and  mowing  in  his  pitiful 
pomp. 

"  Cash !  "  he  shrilled.     "  My  cash !  " 

There  was  a  metallic  crash  and  another  mad  cheer. 
The  gates  had  given  way,  and  then  they  came  pour 
ing  in.  The  high  pitched  voice  of  a  woman  sud 
denly  broke  again  into  the  frenzied  song  of  The 
Marseillaise,  and  a  shouting  chorus,  out  of  all  sem 
blance  of  tune  but  with  wonderful  rhythm,  caught  it 
up.  A  torch  darted  into  the  open  around  the  far 
bend.  Rollins,  who  was  unconsciously  reaching 
back  for  his  pistol,  found  his  fingers  caught  in  a 
soft  hand,  and  felt  a  gentle  pull.  He  obeyed  the 
tugging  immediately  and  allowed  himself  to  be  led. 
Outside  the  door,  in  the  dim  light  of  the  hall,  Elsie 


A  KISS  IN  THE  DARK  369 

White,  still  leading  the  way  toward  the  rear  of  the 
building,  looked  up  at  him  with  terror-widened  eyes. 

"  This  way,"  she  urged.     "  I  must  hide  you." 

"  My  men !  "  he  protested.  "  They  should  be  ap 
proaching  the  grounds  by  this  time,  and  now  I  must 
lead  them  by  a  different  way." 

"  Don't  go!  "  she  begged  of  him.  "  If  they  see 
you  crossing  the  open  spaces  they  will  chase  you  and 
shoot  you  as  they  would  a  wild  animal." 

"  I  can  not  help  it,"  he  answered  calmly.  "  I 
must  go." 

He  raced  on  through  to  the  kitchen  hall,  but  he 
did  not  let  go  of  her  hand ;  and  now  it  was  he  who 
led.  He  reached  the  rear  door  and  threw  it  open. 

"  Come,"  he  said  simply. 

She  looked  up  at  him  a  moment  and  then  gently 
stepped  out  beside  him,  closing  the  door  after  her. 
He  paused  for  a  moment,  with  sudden  mastery,  to 
gather  her  in  his  arms,  and  for  just  that  moment 
she  laid  her  head  in  surrender  upon  his  shoulder. 
She  knew  now  that  her  dreams  of  Kelvin  had  been 
but  the  outcome  of  a  youthful  ideal;  an  ideal  which 
had  made  her  see  Phillip  through  distorted  eyes, 
which  had  clouded  her  vision  to  this  sterling  love, 
which  had  nearly  wrecked  her  happiness  for  life. 
But  now,  thank  God,  it  was  over,  and  her  own  pure 
heart  was  come  into  the  keeping  of  one  worthy 
of  that  priceless  gift.  Rollins  lifted  her  head 


370  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

gently,  stooped  down  and  kissed  her  full  upon  the 
warm  red  lips,  and  then  he  took  her  hand  again. 

"  It  looks  like  desertion,"  said  he,  "  but  we  can  do 
no  good  here." 

He  struck  out  with  her  along  the  path,  but  she 
pulled  against  his  direction. 

"This  way,"  she  insisted;  "straight  back  from 
the  house  to  the  garden  and  around  past  the  ken 
nels.  Then  we  can  be  under  cover  all  the  way." 

He  looked  down  at  her  critically.  Fortunately 
her  dress  was  dark.  They  raced  away  into  the 
shelter  of  the  dark  shrubbery,  a  path  that  he  would 
not  have  dared  to  choose  in  his  haste;  but  Elsie, 
who  was  familiar  with  every  foot  of  the  ground, 
bent  her  head  and  guided  him  by  many  turns  and 
twists  into  a  screen  of  impenetrable  blackness. 

In  the  meantime,  in  the  library,  the  voice  of 
Jens  Nelson,  cool  and  collected,  inquired : 

"  How  shall  we  prepare  to  die  ?  Standing  or 
crouching?  " 

He  drew  down  the  blind,  and,  making  his  way  to 
the  other  side  of  the  room,  once  more  turned  the 
switch  button. 

Doctor  Zelphan,  standing  where  he  had  been, 
looked  swiftly  about  the  room.  They  two  were  the 
only  occupants. 

"  It  seems,"  he  said  with  a  short  laugh,  "  that  the 
others  have  already  made  their  choice.  The  ma- 


A  KISS  IN  THE  DARK  371 

jority  rules,  and  I  shall  follow.  Only  the  young 
insist  upon  dying  gaudily.  For  myself,  I  have  still 
to  finish  my  book." 

He  had  moved  rapidly  across  the  room  to  the  hall 
door  as  he  spoke.  The  menacing  song  of  The  Mar 
seillaise,  now  but  a  roaring  series  of  accented  shouts, 
was  quite  near.  Two  sharp,  resounding  shots 
echoed  just  outside  the  hall  door. 

"  The  guards !  "  exclaimed  Zelphan.  "  They  are 
still  at  the  door.  There  is  a  part  of  your  America, 
the  part  that  I  love.  What  wonderful  material  for 
my  book.  Come!  If  we  must  die  let  us  die 
crouching/'  and  without  waiting  he  raced  up  the 
stairs,  heading  toward  the  attic. 

Nelson  hesitated  a  moment.  Two  more  shots 
rang  out,  followed  by  howls  of  hate,  and  then  a 
fusillade  of  bullets  spattered  against  the  walls, 
crashed  through  the  glass,  and  imbedded  themselves 
with  soft  thuds  into  the  heavy  woodwork  of  the 
doors.  Nelson  hesitated  no  longer  but  followed  the 
doctor. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

LILLIAN    TAKES    POSSESSION    OF    HER    INHERITANCE 

THE  doors  offered  but  a  brief  resistance, 
after  the  two  guards  had  been  beaten  down 
and  torn  and  snarled  over,  and  then  the 
dust-blackened  mob  came  bursting  in,  at  their  head 
Lillian  Breed,  the  incarnation  of  wild  atavic  gypsy- 
hood,  the  incarnation  of  hell-apprenticed  beauty, 
the  incarnation  of  all  the  evil  things  that  are  red, 
her  cheeks  aflame  to  vie  with  the  carmine  of  the 
knotted  kerchief  in  her  black  hair,  her  ruby-tinted 
gown  slashed  and  ribboned  and  frayed,  and  one 
rounded  bare  arm,  upon  which  was  a  slight  flesh 
wound  and  a  trickle  of  shining  crimson,  hanging 
entirely  without  the  torn  sleeve.  Her  eyes  were 
flaming  and  her  scarlet  lips  were  parted  in  a  mock 
ing  laugh. 

"Welcome  to  our  home!"  she  cried,  half  turn 
ing  to  the  rabble  and  throwing  her  right  arm  aloft, 
the  bare  one  with  the  red  streak  upon  it,  and, 
thrusting  her  left  arm  beneath  that  of  Blagg,  she 
wheeled  with  him  into  the  library,  while  their  fol- 

372 


LILLIAN  TAKES  POSSESSION     373 

lowers  poured  after  them  like  a  foul  flood  through 
out  the  house. 

There  was  an  almost  instant  breaking  of  china 
and  rending  of  draperies,  with  the  shrill  laughter 
of  mad  women  above  all,  sounds  of  vandal  devasta 
tion  and  destruction  at  which  Lillian  only  laughed 
aloud. 

"  Help  yourselves,  my  good  friends,"  she  shouted. 
"  The  house  is  yours  and  all  that  it  contains,  even 
to  its  unwelcoming  hosts,  if  you  find  them." 

No  fiend  could  have  laughed  more  evilly  than  she. 
In  the  library  Blagg  jumped  upon  the  very  table 
which  Breed  had  so  lately  quitted,  and  clapped  his 
hands  for  silence. 

"  Order  there !  "  he  shouted,  and  stamped  heavily 
with  his  nail-studded  heel  upon  the  polished  ma 
hogany  of  the  table  top. 

"Who  orders  order?"  roared  a  half  drunken 
tinner,  who  had  already  secured  a  decanter  from 
the  dining-room  and  now  crowded  into  the  door. 
His  face  was  blackened  with  powder  smoke;  over 
his  left  eye  there  was  a  broad  patch  of  darkened  dry 
blood;  his  thick  lips  were  parted  in  a  ribald  grin. 
He  raised  the  decanter  to  his  lips  and  took  a  long 
pull  of  the  liquor.  "Who  orders  order?"  he  re 
peated,  shoving  his  way  forward  into  the  room. 
"Orders  are  for  slaves!  I  defy  orders!  To  hell 
with  orders !  " 


374  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

A  lean  little  man  with  eyes  as  sharp  as  steel 
needles  and  with  a  pointed  nose  and  a  pointed  chin 
and  curiously  overhanging  brow,  and  long,  thin 
arms,  suddenly  whipped  a  knife  from  his  belt  and 
stabbed  the  tinner  in  the  throat.  He  fell  without  a 
groan.  Those  around  him  only  laughed,  but  order 
was  obtained. 

"  This  is  business,  in  the  name  of  liberty  and 
equality !  "  commanded  Blagg.  "  Hold  yourselves 
in  restraint.  Remember  that  we  came  here  to  get  a 
billion  and  a  half  of  dollars  for  the  cause.  Every 
one  of  you  must  help  us  to  carry  it  from  here,  and 
remember  that  we  have  all  sworn  to  kill  the  first 
man  who  tries  to  make  away  with  any  of  it  or  to  ap 
propriate  a  dollar  to  his  own  uses.  After  we  have 
established  equality  and  fraternity,  then  every  man 
may  do  as  he  likes,  but  to-night  we  must  act  for  the 
common  weal.  Come  forward  as  your  names  are 
called.  Meyers ! "  The  lean  little  man  who  had 
stabbed  the  tinner  pressed  forward  to  the  table. 
"  Trellis ! "  A  stoop-shouldered  man  with  a 
dished-in  face  joined  Meyers.  "  White ! "  The 
father  of  Elsie  White,  gray  and  fat  and  with  the 
light  of  foolish  zealotry  in  his  eyes  pushed  eagerly 
to  the  front.  "  Oilman !  Owens !  Hibbard ! 
Schultz !  Garvin  !  Boyer !  " 

They  came  to  him  as  he  called  until  he  had  named 
a  score  of  names. 


LILLIAN  TAKES  POSSESSION      375 

"  That  is  all  for  now,"  he  directed.  "  The  rest 
of  you  wait  here  in  your  detachments  of  tens  until 
you  are  called  from  below." 

Lillian  had  stood  at  the  side  of  the  fireplace,  her 
hand  upon  the  knob  of  the  little  door  which  led  into 
her  grandfather's  retiring  room.  Now  Blagg 
jumped  down  from  the  table  to  her  side,  and  to 
gether  they  threw  open  the  door.  Lillian  broke  out, 
instantly,  into  a  shrill  laugh. 

"  Why,  look  who's  here !  "  she  cried.  "  If  it  isn't 
my  dear  old  friend,  Mrs.  Rensselaer." 

Mrs.  Rensselaer  stepped  back  from  her  vain  at 
tempts  to  bolt  the  door,  and,  with  her  hand  resting 
easily  upon  the  foot  of  Breed's  couch,  looked  quietly 
at  Lillian,  waiting.  With  her  gray  hair  and  her 
neat  gown  and  her  calm  dignity  she  overawed  Lil 
lian  for  a  moment,  and  then  anger  came  as  a  nat 
ural  reaction. 

"Why,  how  delightful!  "  said  Lillian  with  mock 
suavity.  "  Mrs.  Rensselaer,  you  must  come  out  and 
let  me  introduce  you  to  some  of  my  friends. 
Ladies !  "  she  called.  "  I  am  going  to  turn  Mrs. 
Rensselaer  over  to  the  reception  committee." 

The  women,  hideous  travesties  of  their  sex  in  all 
their  grim  frowsiness  and  excitement,  grinned  and 
pressed  forward. 

"  This  is  Mrs.  Rensselaer,"  continued  Lillian, 
dragging  forth  her  many  years'  companion.  "  She 


3;6  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

is  the  last  lady  of  one  of  our  very,  very  oldest  fam 
ilies.  None  of  her  ancestry  has  worked  since 
America  was  a  nation.  Her  nephew  is  General 
Rensselaer,  who  is  commander-in-chief  of  the  army 
of  Emperor  Kelvin,  Phillip  the  First !  I  know  you 
will  enjoy  her  society." 

Her  mocking  laugh  seemed  enough  hint  as  she 
thrust  Mrs.  Rensselaer  into  the  library.  A  brazen 
woman,  fat  and  gross,  and  with  hideous  lips  burned 
dark  as  with  a  fever,  caught  Mrs.  Rensselaer  by  the 
hand  and  jerked  her  forward.  A  mere  slip  of  a 
girl,  thin  and  formless,  but  whose  face  already  bore 
the  unmistakable  traces  of  living  death,  laughed  a 
shrill  laugh,  and,  with  a  soiled  cap  that  had  once 
been  a  boy's,  slapped  Mrs.  Rensselaer  across  the 
face. 

Flushing  red  with  the  indignity,  Mrs.  Rensselaer 
turned  to  Lillian,  but  she  had  neither  time  to  pro 
test  nor  need  of  it,  for  Lillian,  obeying  another  of 
the  sudden  tigerish  impulses  to  which  in  the  past 
week  she  had  wholly  given  herself,  changed  her 
attitude  completely  and  with  blazing  eyes  rushed 
between  Mrs.  Rensselaer  and  her  tormentors. 

"  That  will  do !  "  she  cried.  "  Mrs.  Rensselaer 
was  my  friend  for  a  great  many  years  and  treated 
me  more  patiently  than  I  deserved.  She  is  my 
guest  now  and  must  be  respected  as  such.  Mrs. 
Rensselaer,  sit  here,"  and  she  seated  her  one-time 


(LILLIAN  TAKES  POSSESSION     377 

social  tutor  and  sponsor  behind  the  library  table,  in 
the  chair  that  Breed  had  lately  vacated.  "  Whit 
ney!  Caspar!  Williams!  Harvey!  Perth!  Green! 
Stand  around  this  table  and  protect  her  from  any 
further  insults,  in  my  name !  As  for  you,"  and  she 
turned  to  the  young  woman  who  had  slapped  Mrs. 
Rensselaer.  Her  eyes  narrowed  and  grew  cold  as 
she  confronted  the  girl.  She  walked  closer  to  her, 
gazing  steadily  and  cruelly  into  the  pale  gray  eyes 
that  now  widened  with  consternation.  Suddenly 
giving  way  to  her  unbridled  whim  she  picked  out 
two  of  the  other  men  and  pushed  the  girl  with  sud 
den  violence  into  their  arms. 

"  Take  her  out  and  throw  her  in  the  lake,"  she 
directed. 

The  men,  laughing  cruelly,  seized  hold  of  her  and 
began  dragging  her  toward  the  door. 

"  But  I  can't  swim !  "  shrieked  the  girl. 

"  That's  why  I  am  having  you  thrown  in  the 
lake,"  said  Lillian  coolly.  "  The  rest  of  you  will 
take  note  by  this  that  Mrs.  Rensselaer  is  to  be  pro 
tected." 

She  started  back  toward  the  door  of  the  smaller 
room.  The  girl,  struggling  against  the  two  who  had 
her  in  charge,  suddenly  burst  into  a  stream  of  vitu 
perative  profanity,  so  vicious  and  so  foul  that  even 
Lillian,  inured  as  she  was  by  the  past  week's  experi 
ence  to  language  of  the  sort,  shuddered,  and  ran 


378  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

from  the  room.  She  paused  in  the  door  to  look  at 
Mrs.  Rensselaer,  and  for  a  moment  wonder  and  ad 
miration  for  that  woman's  poise,  even  in  the  face  of 
this  trying  position,  came  over  her.  There  was 
something  in  the  pride  of  birth,  something  in  the  in 
fluence  of  a  long  line  of  honored  ancestry,  a  gift, 
intangible  and  inexplicable,  but  none  the  less  real, 
over  which  she  marveled,  as  have  thousands  of  oth 
ers  descended  of  coarser  clay,  since  society  emerged 
from  its  swaddling  clothes ;  and  when  she  discovered 
awe  of  it  in  herself,  like  all  her  kind  she  resented  it. 

"  I  must  have  your  rings  and  your  brooch,  I 
think,  Mrs.  Rensselaer,"  said  she,  and  swiftly  going 
behind  the  table  she  disengaged  the  diamond  cluster 
from  Mrs.  Rensselaer's  throat  and  stripped  the  rings 
from  the  unresisting  fingers.  Even  as  she  did  this 
her  mood  changed  again,  and  she  whispered :  "  It 
is  the  best  thing  for  you."  Taking  the  jewels  in 
her  hand  she  cried :  "  A  gift  from  aristocracy  to 
equality  and  fraternity !  "  and  she  tossed  them  in 
the  air. 

A  hundred  hands  reached  for  them  as  they  came 
down,  and  a  clamor  of  excited  voices  told  how  pop 
ular  that  action  had  been.  Lillian  glanced  at  the 
scramble  with  her  lip  curled  for  a  second  in  scorn, 
then  she  turned  to  Blagg  briskly. 

"  Come  on,"  she  said,  "  we  have  work  to  do," 


379 

and,  followed  by  Blagg  and  his  score  of  picked  men, 
she  hurried  through  the  little  rear  room. 

They  found  the  closet  door  open,  and  its  rear  wall 
pushed  back,  revealing  the  narrow  secret  staircase. 
Single  file  they  hurriedly  descended  this,  Lillian  at 
the  head,  and  turned  into  the  wide  cemented  vesti 
bule,  where  an  electric  light  was  already  burning. 
Lillian  dropped  down  before  the  combination  knob 
and  turned  it  carefully  backward  and  forward,  sev 
eral  times. 

"  I  feared  so,"  she  said  to  Blagg,  who  knelt  be 
side  her.  "  The  combination  has  been  changed." 

Blagg  took  the  knob  in  his  long,  sensitive  fingers 
and,  not  looking  at  it,  bent  his  ear  close  to  it,  while 
Lillian  laid  her  bare  arm  loosely  across  his  shoul 
ders.  He  turned  the  knob  slowly  and  gently;  he 
stopped  and  turned  it  backward,  slowly  and  gently ; 
he  stopped  and  turned  it  forward  and  backward  and 
forward  again,  with  deft  sureness  of  touch  and 
hearing,  and  then  smiled  as  he  gave  the  ring  of  the 
door  a  clutch  and  pulled.  The  door  came  open. 

"  It's  a  good  thing  that  I  practised  those  long, 
long  hours  every  night  on  that  sample  knob  in  my 
room  up-stairs,"  he  said  as  he  went  in  to  the  next 
one. 

He  did  not  wait  for  Lillian  to  try  this,  but  de 
pended  again  upon  his  own  touch  and  hearing. 


380  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

Slowly,  but  with  remarkable  skill,  he  worked  his 
way  through  the  four  iron  doors,  until,  with  Lillian 
by  his  side,  he  had  thrown  the  last  one  open;  and 
there,  in  the  vault,  with  a  great  pile  of  gold  and  bills 
scattered  thickly  about  him  and  empty  drawers  lying 
in  confusion  everywhere,  with  his  robe  and  crown 
still  on  and  his  scepter  in  his  hand,  stood  Henry 
Breed. 

"  Cash !  "  he  cried.  "  Cash !  The  greatest  force 
in  all  the  world.  The  power  that  can  totter  thrones 
and  disrupt  governments;  that  can  cause  wars  and 
support  them  and  end  them ;  that  can  build  cities  and 
devastate  them!  Cash!  The  life  blood  of  com 
merce!  The  great  social  dynamo!  The  golden 
lever  of  Archimedes!  Cash!  Salute  your  master, 
Cash,  loyal  subjects,  and  your  master's  master,  the 
King  of  Cash!" 

"Grandfather!"  said  Lillian  hurrying  to  him. 
"  Come  with  me.  !We  want  to  put  this  money  away 
and  lock  it  up  so  no  one  can  get  it.  See,  you  have 
left  all  the  doors  open!  " 

A  mere  fleeting  trace  of  his  old  shrewdness  came 
into  his  eyes. 

"  Why,  I  thought  I  closed  them,"  he  quavered. 

'  Yes,  yes,  we  must  hurry  and  put  it  back,"  and 

stooping,    his    crown    rolling    down    among    the 

money  in  the  process,  he  began  to  gather  up  hand- 

fuls  of  bills. 


LILLIAN  TAKES  POSSESSION    381 

The  babble  of  voices  from  the  upper  part  of  the 
house,  as  some  one  opened  the  door  of  the  little 
room  back  of  the  library,  came  sharply  down  to 
them.  At  the  sound  he  straightened  up  and  his  dim 
old  eyes  grew  wide. 

"  Hush !  They  are  coming  I  "  Ke  said.  "  They 
sha'n't  have  it ! "  he  suddenly  screamed.  "  It  is 
mine !  Mine !  Every  dollar  of  it !  " 

He  rushed  toward  the  door  to  close  it,  but  he 
stumbled  and  fell  upon  the  floor,  and  lay  quite  still. 

"  Come  here,  two  of  you  fellows,"  called  Lil 
lian  briskly,  back  to  business  once  more.  "  Pick 
him  up  and  carry  him  into  the  little  corner  at  the 
side  of  the  stairway,  where  it  is  light  and  cool.  I 
think  he  has  only  fainted.  George,  you  might  as 
well  begin." 

As  scf)n  as  Henry  Breed  was  carried  out  there 
was  room  for  the  full  score  of  men  in  the  big  vault, 
and  Blagg  called  them  all  in  by  name,  each  one,  as 
he  came  forward,  loosing  two  long,  brown  sacks 
from  about  his  middle. 

"  Gather  up  the  money  from  the  floor  first,"  Blagg 
directed,  "  then  take  the  drawers  systematically,  be 
ginning  at  the  bottom  and  working  up." 

Eagerly  the  men  began  filling  their  sacks,  with 
many  exclamations  of  animal  gratification  as  tha 
silken  feel  of  the  paper  and  the  metallic  touch  of  the 
metal  glided  through  their  fingers. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

PHILLIP  THE  FIRST  AND  THE  KING  OF  CASH  COME 
EACH  TO  THE  END  OF  HIS  JOURNEY 

IN  that  deep  vault  sounds  from  without  were 
but  silences,  except  as  they  burst  down  when 
the  door  was  opened  from  above.  There  was 
plenty  of  it  to  hear,  however,  for  there  was  mad 
revelry  throughout  all  the  place.  The  gentlemen 
and  ladies  of  equality  and  fraternity  had,  first  of 
all,  hunted  out  the  stores  of  food  and  liquor.  These 
despatched,  amid  much  shouting  and  quarreling, 
they  swarmed  over  the  house  like  rats,  seeking  what 
they  might  pilfer  or  destroy.  A  fire  could  have 
gutted  the  place  no  worse.  Next,  the  madness  to 
hunt  and  bring  to  bay  and  kill  came  upon  them,  and 
now  the  very  nature  of  their  bodies  changed,  as, 
with  noses  thrust  forward  and  legs  bent  and  talon- 
curved  fingers  at  the  ends  of  their  backward-swung 
hands  they  searched  with  almost  whining  eagerness 
in  every  nook  and  cranny  large  enough  to  conceal 
human  life.  They  did  not  find  Zelphan  but  they 
did  find  Jens,  and  when  he  realized  that  concealment 
was  no  longer  possible,  he  stepped  out  and  faced 

382 


THE  END  OF  THE  JOURNEY      383 

them,  and  fought  and  died  standing  as  he  had 
preferred. 

Had  he  remained  concealed  for  but  a  few  brief 
moments  he  might  still  have  lived,  for  there  came 
suddenly  upon  the  big  gray  house  a  new  and  a  ter 
rible  sound,  borne  by  swift,  shadowy  engines  that 
swept  upward  along  the  wide  curving  driveway  al 
most  noiseless,  except  for  a  rush  and  a  whirr.  Out 
of  the  purring  silence,  they  burst  upon  the  rabble  out 
side  with  a  sharp  rattling  hailstorm  of  leaden  death ! 

Kelvin  and  his  squad  of  flying  Gattlings  had  ar 
rived,  and  close  behind  him  trotted  the  detachment 
that  had  been  bivouacked  nearest  the  gates.  He  had 
come  upon  those  outside  stragglers  so  swiftly  that 
there  had  been  no  time  to  escape  his  instantaneous 
engines  of  destruction,  which,  sweeping  from  side 
to  side,  mowed  down  men  as  if  they  had  been  weeds. 
Stalwart  men  in  khaki  sprang  upon  the  steps. 
There  were  a  few  survivors  and  these,  in  their  panic, 
the  footmen  took  care  of,  while  other  stalwarts  car 
ried  a  Gattling  and  planted  it  in  the  very  doorway, 
pouring  its  deadly  blight  back  into  the  hall.  They 
set  it  up  next  at  the  library  door,  and  swept  that 
room  as  bare  and  clear  of  living  humanity  as  if  a 
flood  had  washed  it  out,  while  the  men  in  khaki 
swarmed  through  the  house,  pursuing  the  followers 
of  Blagg  into  bloody  corners  and  exterminating 
them  as  if  they  had  been  vermin,  A  detachment, 


384  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

with  Rensselaer  and  Kelvin  in  the  lead,  stepped  over 
the  ghastly,  huddled  heaps  in  the  library,  hurried 
back  through  the  little  room,  and  poured  down  the 
narrow  secret  stairway.  As  they  had  swept  through 
the  library  Rensselaer  had  caught  a  brief  glimpse  of 
a  gray-haired  woman  in  a  black  silk  gown,  with 
her  head  upon  her  folded  arms,  sitting  at  the  table, 
but  the  picture  was  confused  with  others  of  its 
riddled  and  useless  kind,  and  he  hurried  on  ahead. 

Kelvin  had  promised  himself  to  be  in  the  lead  as 
they  went  down  the  stairway,  but  as  he  turned  into 
the  closet  entrance,  a  huge  black  form  thrust  itself 
in  before  him,  and  Sam,  the  long  scar  upon  his  left 
cheek  grown  livid  and  his  huge  mouth  distended  in 
a  grin  that  displayed  his  yellow  teeth,  and  crooning, 
actually  crooning  one  of  those  wild  melodies  of  the 
old  plantation  days,  led  the  way,  unarmed  except  for 
the  formidable  weapons  with  which  nature  had  pro 
vided  him. 

There  had  been  shouts  before  this,  so  no  new 
shouts  disturbed  the  workers  in  the  vault.  What 
little  noise  the  Gattlings  had  made  had  sounded  but 
like  a  sprinkle  of  rain  upon  leaves,  and  the  greedy 
garnerers  of  Breed's  golden  harvest  were  taken  by 
complete  surprise.  They  turned  from  their  tasks 
as  the  men  in  khaki  streamed  in  upon  them,  but 
their  weapons  had  been  laid  aside  and  they  had  only 


THE  END  OF  THE  JOURNEY     385 

bags  of  money  with  which  to  fight;  and  these  were 
too  heavy ! 

Sam  was  shouting  aloud.  An  irresistible  demon, 
he  clutched  first  one  thin  throat  in  his  mighty  hands 
and  cracked  it  and  threw  the  limp,  resistless  body 
aside  and  sprang  for  another;  and  the  second  man 
to  fall  before  his  savage  onslaught  was  Ben  White. 

Blagg,  with  a  mighty  oath,  sprang  for  Kelvin, 
who  had  entered  just  behind  Sam,  but  one  of  Rens- 
selaer's  lieutenants  was  quick  enough  to  intercept 
him.  Blagg  blindly  fought  off  this  man.  He  had 
eyes  only  for  Kelvin,  just  for  Kelvin!  In  a  mo 
ment  the  place  was  a  purgatory  of  weaving,  strain 
ing  forms ;  but  through  all  his  struggle  with  his  own 
adversary,  Blagg  never  took  his  eyes  from  Phillip. 
Finally,  with  his  arms  clasped  about  the  middle  of 
the  lieutenant,  he  gradually  bent  his  assailant  back 
ward,  and  in  the  act  managed  to  draw  the  lieuten 
ant's  pistol  from  its  holster.  In  place  of  turning 
it  upon  his  own  antagonist,  he  leveled  it  over  the 
man's  shoulder  straight  at  Kelvin ! 

It  was  Sam,  who,  shouting  in  a  fever  of  savage 
joy,  saw  that  motion  and  sprang  to  wrest  the  pistol 
from  Blagg.  He  only  succeeded  in  placing  his  body 
between  the  pistol  and  his  master,  and,  with  his  big 
hands  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  two  struggling  men 
in  front  of  him,  received  in  his  own  breast  the 


386  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

three  bullets  that  the  firearm  yet  contained.  Then, 
his  work  done,  he  fell  heavily  to  the  floor,  and  upon 
his  face  was  fixed  for  ever  that  same  sardonic  grin 
that  displayed  all  his  snarling  yellow  teeth. 

Kelvin,  spent  with  his  own  efforts,  stood  erect  to 
breathe  for  a  moment,  and  in  that  moment  a  needle- 
sharp  dagger  was  thrust  into  his  side.  He  tottered 
and  fell,  and  above  him  knelt  Lillian  Breed,  while 
before  his  eyes  she  held  the  dagger. 

"  See !  "  she  cried.  "  This  was  your  emblem  of 
triumph!  This  was  the  sign  in  which  you  were  to 
conquer!  This  was  the  instrument  that  twice 
threatened  you  and  twice  failed;  but  the  third  time 
it  wins !  Phillip,  you  made  but  one  mistake.  Had 
you  put  me  at  your  side  as  your  Empress,  in  this 
sign,"  and  she  held  the  dagger  point  upward,  "  we 
would  have  conquered  the  world ;  but  you  repudiated 
me,  and  in  this  sign  you  die !  " 

Kelvin  turned  his  face  wearily  away.  The  ges 
ture  maddened  her  and  in  fury  she  would  have 
raised  the  dagger  again  to  smite  him  with  it,  but 
one  of  the  throng  of  soldiers  who  were  still  pouring 
in,  struck  it  from  her  hand  and  overpowered  her 
and  bound  her  arms  behind  her,  as  those  of  Blagg 
had  already  been  bound.  Except  for  these  two,  not 
one  of  the  despoilers  in  the  vault  was  able  to  do 
damage,  and  Rensselaer,  unscathed,  looked  down 
upon  Phillip  with  tears  moistening  his  eyes.  He 


THE  END  OF  THE  JOURNEY      387 

choked  them  back,  however,  as  he  thought  became 
a  soldier. 

"  Take  him  out  carefully,  boys,"  he  said; "  but  get 
him  into  the  air  quickly !  " 

He  himself  took  Phillip's  shoulders,  and  care 
fully,  gently,  they  bore  him  up  the  narrow  stairway 
and  through  the  shambles  that  had  once  been  a 
library.  As  they  passed  through  that  room  Rensse- 
laer's  eye  happened  to  rest  again  upon  that  motion 
less,  gray-haired  woman  at  the  library  table,  struck 
down  by  his  own  Gattling,  and  as  he  recognized  her 
he  turned  faint  and  almost  dropped  his  burden. 

"  Here,"  he  told  one  of  his  men,  "  help  carry 
him.  I  can  not." 

He  almost  stumbled  into  the  outer  air,  and  the 
men  followed  him  with  Kelvin,  and,  covering  him  to 
the  breast  with  a  sheet  hastily  snatched  from  Breed's 
couch,  laid  the  first  and  last  Emperor  of  America 
flat  upon  the  porch  at  the  edge  of  the  steps,  where 
the  cooling  breeze  might  blow  upon  his  brow,  and 
the  brightest  star  in  the  sky,  his  "  star  of  destiny," 
might  beam  down  mockingly  upon  him.  There  was 
no  foe  at  hand,  for  all  the  present  foe  had  been 
despatched,  and  the  soldiers  turned  as  with  one  im 
pulse  toward  the  spot  where  the  leader  they  had  fol 
lowed  lay  pale  and  rigid  under  the  yellow  porch 
light ;  and  this  yellow  light  was,  in  a  moment  more, 
augmented  by  a  saffron  glare  that  flared  out  as  the 


388  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

roof,  from  a  fire  in  the  attic,  started  by  the  recent 
vandals,  broke  into  a  blaze ! 

"  Charge !  "  came  a  sudden  sharp  yoice  from  the 
shrubbery. 

Startled,  in  the  glare  of  the  burning  roof  Rensse- 
laer  saw  a  host  of  men,  with  fixed  bayonets,  sud 
denly  spring  out  of  the  dark  shrubbery  at  the  north 
west  side  of  the  building  and  come  tearing  down 
upon  them,  braving  a  hand  to  hand  conflict  imme 
diately  upon  their  sudden  discovery  in  the  broad 
light. 

"Left  face!  Present  arms!"  came  the  sharp 
command  of  Rensselaer. 

The  word  "  Fire  "  was  just  trembling  upon  his 
lips  when  he  recognized  the  advancing  leader,  rush 
ing  with  drawn  saber  and  pistol  at  the  side  of  the 
first  line  in  the  column. 

"  Halt !  For  God's  sake,  halt !  "  he  cried,  jump 
ing  down  from  the  porch  before  his  men  and  facing 
the  oncoming  ranks,  waving  the  white  sheet  that  he 
had  snatched  from  across  Kelvin.  "  A  truce ! 
For  God's  sake,  Rollins,  halt  your  men!  This  mad 
ness  is  all  over!  Kelvin  is  dead!  " 

Within  but  a  few  feet  of  what  must  otherwise 
have  been  a  desperate  struggle,  the  advancing 
column  was  checked,  and  Rollins  heard  briefly  from 
the  sickened  Rensselaer  what  had  happened.  He 


THE  END*  OE  THE  JOURNEY      389 

strode  up  the  steps  and  stood  before  Kelvin  with 
bared  head. 

"  Only  mistaken,"  he  said  in  benediction  and  for 
giveness.  Then  he  turned  to  his  own  followers  and 
those  of  Rensselaer.  "  As  President  of  the  United 
States,  vice  Kelvin,  I  have  become  your  chief  com 
manding  officer,'*  he  told  them.  "  Kelvin  is  dead, 
but  the  republic  still  lives.  Blagg  and  his  consort 
will  die  this  morning,  and  with  them  the  rebellion 
is  broken.  There  will  be  fighting  yet,  some  little, 
and  turmoil  and  hardship  before  peace  is  restored  to 
us;  and  some  restrictive  legislation,  to  be  carefully 
and  wisely  considered,  must  be  made  to  keep  down 
such  appalling  accumulations  of  wealth  as  may 
threaten  our  liberty  and  our  republic;  but,  gentle 
men,  through  it  all  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  still  is  sacred  and  supreme,  and  there,"  his 
voice  took  on  a  sudden  ring  of  exultation,  "  and 
there  waves  its  everlasting  emblem !  " 

One  grizzled  old  veteran,  of  Sumner  Rollins' 
ranks,  had  brought  with  him,  so  tightly  folded  that 
it  might  have  been  taken  as  a  pike,  a  tattered  old 
American  flag  that  had  gone  through  the  war  of  the 
North  and  South,  and  had  now  flung  its  war- 
stained  stars  and  stripes  to  their  gaze  There  was 
a  cheer,  but  only  a  feeble  one.  After  all  the  turmoil 
and  its  solemn  ending,  the  sight  of  this  almost  for- 


390  THE  CASH  INTRIGUE 

gotten  banner  proved  too  much  for  wild  cheering, 
and  instead,  the  men,  almost  with  one  accord,  took 
off  their  hats,  and  moisture  stood  in  their  eyes. 

A  strange  figure  appeared  among  them.  Old 
Henry  Breed,  still  clad  in  his  mockery  of  royal  rai 
ment,  staggered  to  the  door.  In  his  fall  and 
through  all  that  succeeded  it,  his  hands  had  convul 
sively  gripped  his  money,  and  he  still  held  it,  green 
and  orange,  in  his  fingers. 

"  Cash ! "  his  shrill  old  voice  quavered  as  he 
flaunted  it  in  the  air.  "  Cash !  The  greatest  force 
in  all  the  world !  The  power  that  can  totter  thrones 
and  disrupt  governments;  that  can  cause  wars  and 
support  them  and  end  them;  that  can  build  cities 
and  devastate  them;  that  can  crush  all  life  and  de 
stroy  all  happiness  and  debauch  all  honor!  Cash! 
The  life  blood  of  commerce!  The  great  social 
dynamo!  The  golden  lever  of  Archimedes! 
Cash!" 

He  stopped  to  laugh  shrilly,  and  allowed  a  soldier 
to  seat  him  in  a  chair  where  he  drooled  off  into  a 
jibbering  mumbling.  As  he  left  the  doorway  his 
place  was  taken  by  Doctor  Zelphan,  his  cap  on  his 
head,  his  twinkling  eyes  gleaming  through  his  thick 
spectacles  and  his  red  beard  pointed  straight  out. 
Both  hands  were  filled  with  shawl-strapped  packages 
of  his  precious  manuscript.  It  was  all  he  had  cared 
to  save  from  the  flames.  He  looked  down  at  Breed 
a  moment  in  contemplative  pity. 


THE  END  OF  THE  JOURNEY      391 

"  He  will  die  the  way  he  is  now,"  said  he.  "  His 
once  remarkable  brain  is  mere  mush.  He  was  a 
wonderful  study,  a  most  wonderful  study,  and  the 
nearest  approach  to  an  absolute  monarch  of  any 
resident  of  this  globe.  In  the  meantime,  gentlemen, 
America  has  had  her  orgasm  and  her  nerves  will 
be  quieter  now.  I  bid  you  good  day.  I  am  going 
to  Switzerland,"  and  he  strode  down  the  drive  and 
around  the  trees  at  the  bend. 

Running  around  the  corner  came  Elsie  White, 
who  had  been  bidden  to  stay  back  in  safety,  but 
who  could  not,  and  Rollins  drew  her  to  his  side. 
The  wind,  blowing  away  some  fleecy  clouds,  revealed 
in  the  east  the  first  rosy  glow  of  coming  day,  and 
the  same  grim  old  veteran  who  had  brought  with 
him  the  war-stained  battle  flag,  broke  in  trembling 
accents  into  a  song  that  cleared  the  still  quivering  air 
of  the  fevered  Marseillaise,,  that  was  caught  up  by  a 
mighty  chorus  of  newly  freed  men,  that  was  at  once 
the  requiescat  of  Kelvin,  a  benediction,  and  the 
promise  of  a  new  birth  for  the  republic  he  had  al 
most  throttled : 

"  Oh  say  can  you  see,  by  the  dawn's  early  light, 
What  so  proudly  we  hailed  at  the  twilight's  last 
gleaming !  " 

THE  END 


A    000052051     o 


